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THE EDUCATION OF 
OUR GIRLS 



THE EDUCATION 
OF OUR GIRLS 



By 

Thomas Edward Shields, Ph.D. 

Associate Professor of Psychology in 
the Catholic University of America. 
Author of ' ' The Making and Un- 
making of a Dullard. * ' 



New York, Cincinnati, Chicago 

BENZIGER BROTHERS 

PRINTERS TO THE HOLY APOSTOLIC SEE 
1907 



mbil QbetaU 



REMY LAFORT, 

Censor Librorum. 



LIBfMRY of COWcHES^I 
Two Copies h'etjfivec! 3 

NOV 29 (90f 






I CUSS ^ KXc. «o. 
\ COPY B. 



v! ^ 



•'-\ 



ITmpctmatur, 

4- JOHN M. FARLEY, 

Archbishop of New York. 
New York, October 10, 1907. 



Copyright, 1907, by Benziger Brothers. 



TO 

THE RIGHT REVEREND 

DENNIS JOSEPH O'CONNELL 

RECTOR OF THE 

CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA 

IN SINCERE APPRECIATION 

OF HIS EFFORTS IN BEHALF OF 

OUR CATHOLIC SCHOOLS 



PREFACE 

The problems which are discussed In these 
pages are among the most Important with 
which the educationist, In theory and In prac- 
tice, Is called to deal. While It Is universally 
acknowledged that the education of women 
should be as perfect as possible and should 
therefore be shaped In accordance with actual 
needs and based on the most Improved meth- 
ods, It Is not so clear just how this education 
Is to be Imparted In such a way as to bring out 
in their full value and beauty the special en- 
dowments of woman. 

Where such vital interests are at stake, 
variety of opinion is to be expected, and the 
most helpful means of reaching a final solu- 
tion is found In the presentation and com- 
parison of different views. Dr. Shields has 
done this In a pleasing and effectual manner 
by bringing forward In his book typical repre- 
sentatives of opposite schools of thought con- 
cerning coeducation. At the same time he 



t Preface 

has furnished an object lesson in criticism and 
discussion which can not but prove helpful to 
the individual teacher in her study and to 
those gatherings of teachers at which educa- 
tional problems are viewed in the light of a 
larger experience and reviewed from many 
standpoints. 

The conclusion reached in this volume 
is plainly in favor of the higher education of 
women; but it is also higher education for 
women. In keeping with the principle that 
all education must consider not only the 
knowledge to be provided but also and pri- 
marily the needs and capacity of the develop- 
ing mind, it is here claimed that woman can 
be most fully and most naturally educated 
only in a school or college for women. The 
alleged advantages of coeducation are more 
than outweighed by its disadvantages. As is 
well known, serious objection has been urged 
by recent authorities against the practice of 
teaching both sexes the same subjects by the 
same methods in the same institution. This 
argument is presented here in a manner at 



Preface g 

once forceful and intelligible; and It Is 
strengthened by considerations which the 
Catholic parent and teacher will be the first to 
appreciate. 

This verdict, on the other hand, points 
clearly to certain practical aspects of our 
Catholic educational system. If it Is desirable 
that our girls should be educated In schools 
specially adapted to their needs and to their 
social functions in life. It Is equally desirable 
and necessary that these schools should be 
properly equipped for what they undertake. 
In other words, the most telling argument 
against coeducation must be found In the work 
done by schools exclusively for women. The 
superiority of such work is to be secured not 
so much by enriching the course of study and 
adding attractions of minor Importance as by 
preparing the teachers for their task. It Is no 
doubt a praiseworthy thing In any teacher that 
she should select as an occupation the train- 
ing of other minds, even though the necessity 
of earning a livelihood and the prospect of 
a more advantageous situation later on should 



lo Preface 

be of prime Importance to her. But quite be- 
yond these motives Is that which Inspires the 
woman who takes up teaching as a religious 
duty to which her whole life Is consecrated. 
No better lesson In unselfish devotion to the 
cause of truth can be given than that which 
we find In our Catholic teaching communities. 
This accounts, I am convinced, for the eager- 
ness with which the sisterhoods welcome each 
suggestion that holds out the promise of help- 
ing them to better work. And It explains, In 
large measure, the desire of Catholic parents 
to have their daughters trained by religious 
teachers wherever such training is available. 
The simplest justice, no less than educational 
wisdom, requires that the good-will and en- 
thusiasm of our teachers should be recognized 
by those who are charged with the work of 
Catholic higher education ; and it is therefore 
gratifying to note that this recognition, in a 
very helpful form, comes from a professor in 
the Catholic University, and from one who is 
thoroughly acquainted with the needs and 
possibilities of our schools. As this volume is 



Preface 1 1 

a proof of the Interest which Is taken at the 
University In all the departments of our edu- 
cational system, It will doubtless turn the 
minds of our teachers toward the University 
as a source of Information and direction. By 
similar means and in view of similar condi- 
tions, some of the Catholic centers of learn- 
ing In Europe have drawn Into closer contact 
with their university work the Religious who 
devote themselves to the education of women. 
The excellent results which are thus attained 
are visible In the growing efficiency of Catho- 
lic schools. Indeed, it Is becoming more and 
more evident that women with a religious 
vocation and the scientific training which only 
the University can give, are the Ideal teachers 
for our Catholic girls. 

Toward such an ideal with its opportunities 
of earnest and effectual work in the cause of 
religion, the hearts of Catholic young women 
Impulsively turn. The more completely that 
ideal Is realized by our teaching communities, 
the brighter will be their prospect of securing 
cooperators In their work. The Divine call- 



1 2 Preface 

ing to a life which means so much for the 
welfare of souls will be heard more clearly 
and followed more promptly. To the faith- 
ful teachers who are now striving for the bet- 
terment of their schools and to those Catholic 
young women who are seeking the path which 
the Master would have them pursue, I ear- 
nestly recommend this book, its reasoned-out 
conclusions and its useful suggestions. 

J. Card. Gibbons. 



Contents 



PAGE 

I Raising an Issue . . • i? 
II Some Psychical Sex Charac- 
teristics . . . '33 

III The Grading OF School Chil- 

dren . . , . '52 

IV Coeducation and Marriage . 67 
V Symmetry in the Cultural 

Development of the Sexes 81 
VI Man and Woman Allies — 

not Competitors . . 102 
VII The Social Claim . .125 

VIII The Social Claim versus The 

Family Claim . . • ^57 
IX The Vocations of Woman . 186 
X Domestic Science . . . 213 
XI The Woman's College of the 

Future . . . .251 
XII The Homemakers of the 

Future .... 276 



y 



THE EDUCATION OF OUR GIRLS 

DISCUSSED BT 

Rev. Edwin Studevan, Ph.D. 

Professor of Pedagogy in the University of A — 

Philip Shannon, Ph.D. 

Professor of Sociology in the University of A 

Miles O'Brien, M.A. 

Writer on Economics, ex- Professor of Political 
Economy in a Western university. 

Miss Ruth, M.A. ('88) College of St. Lioba, 
Principal of Normal School. 

Miss Geddes, A.B. ('89) University of Michigan, 

(co-ed, suspected of an interest in Professor 
Shannon) . 

Mr. Eaton 

A wealthy business man with limited education. 

Mrs. O'Brien 

The mother of five children. 

Scene — Dunbarton Hall 



CHAPTER I 

Raising an Issue 

My thirty winters in Minnesota had hardly 
prepared me for the trip to Chevy Chase last 
night. The underground trolley has its disad- 
vantages after all. A light snow, that would 
not have affected travel in the Twin Cities, 
made progress through the Capital City a 
slow and difficult task. Even slight grades 
were rendered formidable by a lack of sand. 
The journey seemed interminable. The cars 
were not heated for zero weather, and when 
at last I rang the bell at Dunbarton Hall I was 
chilled to the very marrow of my bones. I was 
quite prepared to find the O'Briens alone, 
feeling that the weather which tried me so 
severely, in spite of my northern experience, 
would be sufficient to keep the other guests 
at home and I was agreeably surprised, there- 
fore, on entering the library, to find a group 
of friends already assembled around the glow- 



1 8 The Education of Our Girls 

ing grate. My arrival had evidently inter- 
rupted Miss Geddes in the midst of one of 
her tirades, for I had hardly got my toes up to 
the fender when, without urging from any 
one, she took up the thread of her interrupted 
discourse. 

**As I was just saying, the whole movement 
for segregation is but another evidence of the 
rawness of Chicago exhibiting itself through 
its university. It is a recrudescence of the old 
barbaric instinct in man that has kept woman 
in bondage for thousands of years. Man has 
always shown himself impatient of every at- 
tempt made by woman to gain her rights. He 
grants suffrage to the illiterate, to the ex-con- 
vict, to the negro, and to the hordes of immi- 
grants from Russia and southern Europe. 
The Italian and the Slav, who know nothing 
of our language or of our institutions, and 
care less for them, are privileged to vote or to 
sell their votes to those who wish to buy; but 
woman must not be given the ballot lest by its 
use she might gain her freedom! And now, 
when she is beginning to get an education that 



Raising an Issue 19 

will equip her to gain an independent liveli- 
hood and to meet man in the economic world 
on equal terms, he is at once alarmed and cries 
out for segregation! 

"That he considers woman less fit than him- 
self to pursue the regular curriculum of the 
university is too absurd! Woman is by na- 
ture more susceptible of culture than man ; her 
instincts are finer, her sympathies are broader ; 
and, as for her intelligence, why, it is admitted 
by all those who are in a position to know that 
whenever she is given an equal opportunity she 
profits by it better than man! She is more 
studious and spends the time in reading and 
study that he spends on the ball field, or in his 
club, at the gambling table or over his cups. 
And then, besides, where else does man get 
what little intelligence he has except from his 
mother?" 

The challenge was evidently leveled at 
Professor Shannon, who sat through it all 
with a perfectly blank face. I was wondering, 
as I think the others were, how he would meet 
it. The silence was beginning to be painful 



20 The Education of Our Girls 

when he turned with a quiet smile to Dr. 
Studevan. 

"I say, Studevan, this seems to be up to you. 
The whole question of woman's suffrage and 
of woman's rights resolves itself in last analy- 
sis into a problem of pedagogy. Shall we 
have coeducation or segregation? that is the 
question" — "that doth make cowards of us 
all," added Mr. O'Brien. 

"No, Shannon," said Dr. Studevan seri- 
ously, "this is really a question of sociology 
rather than of pedagogy. These things are 
never settled by the promulgation of a priori 
principles or of scientific deductions. It is the 
struggle for existence and the survival of the 
fittest in the social world, don't you know. 
These great fundamental forces will work out 
the solution in due time and then some of you 
brilliant sociologists will appear on the scene 
and make a reputation for originality by pro- 
mulgating to the world what it shall have 
already discovered for itself." 

"Oh, come now," replied Professor Shan- 
non, "you are just trying to crawl out of a 



Raising an Issue 21 

difficulty: Miss Geddes has taken Issue with 
views that you have often expressed where 
woman could not defend herself." 

"Doctor," said Miss Ruth, "you surely 
would not be guilty of such an anachronism as 
that Involved In upholding In the beginning 
of the twentieth century the traditional infe- 
riority of woman's intellect. Until recent 
years woman has had no opportunity to show 
her ability In the field of higher education. It 
is said, of course, that she lacks Initiative and 
self-reliance, but how could we expect this to 
be otherwise when we consider the treatment 
she has received through so many genera- 
tions?" 

"I don't expect It to be otherwise. Miss 
Ruth ; we are all largely what the environment 
of our ancestors has made us. However, 
history does not reveal woman to us In un- 
broken captivity: whenever her ability justi- 
fied it, we find her governing man and leading 
him into new conquests, but the number of 
such women has been discouraglngly small." 

"These were the few," replied Miss Ruth, 



2 2 The Education of Our Girls 

*'who rose above all difficulties and made op- 
portunity. But to prove her ability we need 
not turn to the past to hunt up the record of 
the occasional woman who rose to great 
heights in the intellectual world; even in the 
short time since the universities have opened 
their doors to her she has amply proved her 
capacity. Just this afternoon I spent a de- 
lightful hour with 'Little Pilgrimages Among 
Women who have Written Famous Books.' 
The catalogue of literary celebrities given in 
that little book is of course very incomplete, 
but it is not wanting in inspiration to women 
with literary aspirations and it should furnish 
food for thought to those who are opposed to 
the higher education of women. 

*'If we turn from the field of literature to 
the technical periodicals that record the 
growth of the various sciences, we shall find 
that the percentage of women's names in the 
list of contributors is increasing year by year. 
In the field of journalism, too, woman is win- 
ning for herself an honorable place in these 
latter days, and although she has but recently 



Raising an Issue 23 

entered the learned professions, there are at 
present many women physicians doing excel- 
lent work, nor are the pulpit and the bar any 
longer strangers to her eloquence. Although 
the progressive State of Illinois has not yet 
seen fit to grant the franchise to woman, it 
would not be easy to find two men within her 
borders who have done better work in mu- 
nicipal reform than have Margaret Haley and 
Catherine Goggin. The statue of Frances 
Wlllard, erected by the State of Illinois, in 
Statuary Hall, attests its appreciation of her 
work In social reform. 

"Moreover, It Is In your own field. Doctor, 
that women are particularly distinguishing 
themselves. Elementary education through- 
out the country has practically passed into 
woman's hands and she Is appearing In ever- 
Increasing numbers In high school and college 
faculties. There are few more Illuminating 
writers on present educational problems than 
Ella Flagg Young. But why proceed further ? 
In the face of such facts as these I find it 
difficult to understand how an intelligent, up- 



24 The Education of Our Girls 

to-date Professor of Pedagogy can oppose the 
higher education of women." 

"But, my dear Madam, I assure you if you 
meant all that for me you are wasting your 
ammunition on an empty fort. I have never 
consciously been in the ranks of those who 
oppose the higher education of woman. Noth- 
ing, indeed, could be further from my thought. 
In the first place I suspect that I lack the 
courage to oppose anything that woman might 
seriously desire. I would not, you know, for 
anything in the world be considered ungal- 
lant. But seriously, I realize the full force of 
all that you have said and I am well aware 
that it would not be difficult for you to multi- 
ply arguments in support of the position you 
have taken — if it needs support. It is evident 
that woman is capable of higher education, 
and it seems to me equally evident that she is 
entitled to it. My opposition is not at all to 
the higher education of woman, but to co- 
education, which I had supposed to be the 
thesis so eloquently defended by Miss 
Geddes." 



Raising an Issue 25 

"But, Doctor, is not this still an evasion? 
If woman is entitled to higher education — to 
as high an education as man — should she not 
take her place side by side with him in the 
great universities of our country?" 

*'No, I do not consider it an evasion. While 
I most cordially agree to the proposition that 
there is no education too high or too good for 
woman, I am not at all convinced that she can 
best obtain this education side by side with 
man In the great universities of our country. 
Coeducation and higher education are two 
totally different questions, and the interests of 
woman no less than the interests of truth suf- 
fer by confusing them. 

* 'Education implies the growth and devel- 
opment of all the faculties of mind and heart, 
but this surely does not mean the molding of 
unlike natures Into a superficial resemblance 
to each other. The higher education of 
woman can by no possibility mean the molding 
of her mental and moral life into the likeness 
of the mental and moral life of man. Even 
if this end were desirable it does not follow 



26 The Education of Our Girls 

that it could be attained by subjecting man 
and woman to the same discipline. Person- 
ally, I believe neither in the desirability nor 
in the possibility of changing woman Into 
man's likeness — she is far too charming as 
she is. 

"I find the advance of life to higher planes 
everywhere dependent upon differentiation of 
structure and specialization of function. A 
reversal of this process always means degen- 
eracy. I see no reason for expecting that the 
laws which know no exception throughout all 
the realms of life should be reversed on the 
frontiers of the mental world. I am not led 
to question the wisdom of the Creator by the 
discovery that the mind and character of 
woman and of man are as different from each 
other as are their bodies. I think we shall 
find that the present high level of civilization 
is due in no small measure to the difference 
between the characters of man and woman. 
But this is trenching on the sociologist's field. 

'*The Professor seems so rapt in blissful 
contemplation this evening that it would be 



Raising an Issue 27 

cruel to ask him to expound to us his views 
and theories on the subject. However, the 
truth here is so elementary that I hardly see 
how any of us can fail to recognize it. What 
woman in her senses would willingly marry a 
man whose mental and moral life was built 
on feminine lines? and where is the man 
amongst us who would not gladly remain a 
bachelor all the days of his life rather than 
marry a masculine woman? The fact of the 
matter is both man and woman are incurably 
vain. No man's happiness is complete unless 
he has woman's admiration for his physical 
strength or for his intellectual prowess; nor 
is a woman's cup of happiness ever full with- 
out man's appreciation of her physical charms. 
To make man and woman alike, to give them 
like capacities, Hke needs and desires, would 
not only render them unattractive to each 
other, but it would in many other ways cause 
the wheels of progress to turn backward. 
Man and woman were designed by nature to 
be the complements of each other, not the 
duplicates." 



28 The Education of Our Girls 

*'That is always the way with you men,'* 
said Miss Geddes, "you would keep woman's 
intellect dwarfed that she might look up to 
you and admire you; you would keep her so 
weak that she must cling to you and feed your 
vanity; you would deprive her of an education 
that would necessarily give her her independ- 
ence and enable her to see through your shal- 
low pretenses to intellectuality." 

"Softly, my dear Miss Geddes, softly. I 
have no intention of apologizing for the other 
gentlemen present, nor any wish to make a 
statement of their principles, but as far as I 
am concerned I wish to assure you that the 
stronger and the more intellectual and the 
more independent woman is, the better I like 
her. However, this is hardly the question 
under discussion; and, moreover, I have al- 
ready said that I am in favor of the higher 
education of woman. Let me say again that 
I do not believe there is any education too 
high or too good for our mothers and our sis- 
ters, for our wives and our daughters — and 
our sweethearts. It is simply a question of 



Raising an Issue 29 

what education is best for woman herself. If 
we are agreed in holding that men and women 
in their mental and moral unfolding, even 
from their earliest childhood, are entirely dif- 
ferent from each other, it follows as an evi- 
dent conclusion that it will require different 
training to develop the best that is in each." 
*'I don't know why I should agree to that 
statement," retorted Miss Geddes. "Why is 
woman so different from man, Fd like to 
know ? Does she not eat the same food and 
breathe the same air? Has she not the same 
desire for happiness, the same need of inde- 
pendence and freedom ? Is she not under the 
same necessity of conquering her environment 
and making it yield the boon for which all 
strive? This constant assertion of the unlike- 
ness of man and woman is but a flimsy disguise 
of man's contempt for woman's intelligence. 
There is neither male nor female in the spirit- 
ual world, and if the mind and character of 
woman seem to differ from those of man it is 
because man has wronged her and kept her in 
bondage so long that she has grown weak and 



30 The Education of Our Girls 

clinging and dependent. Give woman her 
freedom, and while her body will remain as 
God made it'* — "Not If she can help it," 
put in Miles O'Brien — "her mind will be 
emancipated and she will meet man on equal 
terms. 

"It tries one's patience to meet men on 
every side calmly assuming their own Inherent 
superiority as If their souls were made of some 
superior, celestial clay! *0n what meat doth 
this our Caesar feed that he hath grown so 
great!'" 

"My dear Miss Geddes, I do not blame you 
in the least for resenting that air of superior- 
ity that the Professor has been wearing all 
the evening. He sits there like a sphinx dis- 
daining to vouchsafe a word of Illumination 
to any of us. I confess that he often aggra- 
vates me so that If It were not for my profes- 
sion I would be inclined to try conclusions 
with him in another way. But I had always 
supposed that he had too much diplomacy to 
manifest this assumed superiority toward his 
lady friends." 



Raising an Issue 31 

"Well, I like that, when the fact of the 
matter Is Mr. O'Brien has tried half a dozen 
times to get a word in edgewise, and I have 
been simply perplexed as to how you were 
going to escape from the web of fallacies that 
you have woven around yourself. I suppose 
one should not expect consistency from a peda- 
gog, but to be told that we should not have 
coeducation because man and woman are un- 
like mentally, and then to be told that they are 
unlike mentally because we do not want them 
to be alike is a little too much. Of course we 
would hardly expect a pedagog to know any- 
thing about history, but even the elementary 
knowledge of history that is common to all 
professions should have made him aware that 
coeducation Is a natural institution. The 
home Is the first great school. Smith with his 
seven girls has an opportunity to try segrega- 
tion, but I do not think he appreciates it; and 
most people with families regard it as a de- 
cided advantage to have both boys and girls. 

"There are a hundred other things that I 
have been waiting for an opportunity to say, 



32 The Education of Our Girls 

but the Doctor has used up the whole even- 
ing ; and while I hate to break up this delight- 
ful company, I find it is past time for me to be 
starting for home." 

"Just a moment, Professor," said Mrs. 
O'Brien, "Anna has some crackers and Roque- 
fort and a cup of coffee to reenforce you against 
this cold evening; and you are to consider 
yourselves invited to the next meeting of the 
Crackers and Cheese Club on Friday evening, 
when the Professor, I am sure, will favor us 
with his views, and I know that Miles is just 
bursting with the pent-up desire to enlighten 
the rest of us." 



CHAPTER II 

Some Psychical Sex Characteristics 

"In the last meeting of this club," said Miles 
O'Brien, "Miss Geddes triumphantly vindi- 
cated woman's capacity and woman's claim 
to higher education, and we have all been 
waiting for you. Professor, to follow suit this 
evening, that we may see how you measure up 
beside her in your plea for coeducation for the 
male and female sexes." 

"It is not fair to expect me to defend the 
cause of coeducation in this company. The 
Doctor aroused my curiosity the other even- 
ing; I wanted to see him extricate himself 
from his tangle of fallacies. It is one thing, 
however, to see through Dr. Studevan's fal- 
lacies and quite another to espouse the cause 
of coeducation, particularly in the present 
company, for many of you have given the sub- 
ject more thought and study than I have. 
There are, however, a few obvious facts in 



34 The Education of Our Girls 

favor of coeducation that do not seem to have 
impressed our pedagog. 

"The family is the oldest of human institu- 
tions. It was the only school known to primi- 
tive man and the verdict of the ages has been 
decidedly in favor of mixed families. When- 
ever Divine Providence sees fit to bestow 
segregated families, no one seems to be par- 
ticularly grateful. Man seldom successfully 
interferes with nature's plan and we should 
scarcely expect good results from the artificial 
separation of the sexes in our schools. The 
constant presence of the opposite sex is a 
natural stimulus for the development of many 
of the best traits of both boys and girls. 
Segregation has a long history back of it and 
the results can hardly be pointed to as evi- 
dence in favor of the plan. It is something 
like the maiming of the feet of the Chinese 
women or the disfigurement of the heads of 
the South American Indians. The placing of 
man's ideals above nature's laws is the folly 
Involved in each of these cases, and wherever 
this happens the one thing we may count 



Some Psychical Sex Characteristics 35 

upon with certainty is that nature will be 
avenged. 

^'When the girl is excluded during all the 
years of her school life from the companion- 
ship of the opposite sex she grows weak and 
defenseless. The results of this procedure, 
however, were not so disastrous in the past as 
they are proving to be in the present. When, in 
the olden time, the girl left her convent home 
only to enter under the protection of the 
parental roof, where she was not allowed to 
meet men until her parents had selected a suit- 
able husband for her, the defects of her edu- 
cation along the lines we are now considering 
were not so fatal. The economic changes of 
the past half century have driven woman from 
her old position. Steam and electricity have 
robbed her of domestic employment; and, at 
least as far as the masses of our city popula- 
tion are concerned, the girl is obliged on leav- 
ing school to seek employment In the shop and 
the factory and in the busy marts of trade. 
Woman must find for herself a new position 
and new employment, and this away from the 



36 The Education of Our Girls 

protection of the home. Where her school 
training has left her unfit to meet these condi- 
tions disaster is the usual result. It is only the 
silly ranter who now lifts his voice against the 
new woman. To try to drive her back into 
her old position is as futile as it would be to 
inveigh against the waters of Niagara and ex- 
pect as a result that they would return to the 
placid bosom of the Great Lakes. 

"In view of these facts the segregation of 
the girl during her school life would seem to 
be the worst possible preparation for her suc- 
cessful struggle with the environment which 
she must enter the day she leaves school. If 
she is to succeed here she must be taught to 
rely upon herself; she must know man; she 
must know how to protect herself from him 
and how to compete with him successfully. 
The attempt to give her this equipment in a 
segregated school would seem to be as hope- 
less as the attempt to teach physics or chem- 
istry or biology without the aid of a labora- 
tory. It is worth remembering also that 
woman is not the only loser by the system of 



Some Psychical Sex Characteristics 37 

segregation. A study of our boarding schools 
where boys are huddled together away from 
woman's refining influence during the forma- 
tive period of their lives shows a decided 
tendency to coarseness as the general result. 
The presence of the girls keeps the boys on 
their good behavior; it appeals to their un- 
selfishness and to their chivalry and It develops 
many of the finer traits of character. 

"The demand for coeducation, therefore, 
would seem to have back of it natural law and 
to be reenforced by present social and eco- 
nomic conditions." 

"All this talk," said Mr. Eaton, "about 
woman's meeting man on equal terms is pure 
moonshine. She Is not now and she never 
was content to meet man on equal terms. She 
has always played the role of queen and still 
Insists on doing it. She has an unfair advan- 
tage of man as the case stands. When I reach 
the street car on my way home from my of- 
fice, tired to death, and get on at the end of 
the line so as to secure a seat, we hardly go a 
block when a bevy of your Vomen competi- 



38 The Education of Our Girls 

tors In the busy marts of trade,' who are cry- 
ing out for the privilege of meeting man on 
equal terms, boards the car and straightway 
we men must relinquish our seats to our 
'equals' and hang to a strap the rest of the 
way home ! We have been having altogether 
too much talk about wo^nan's rights; it seems 
to me high time that we heard something 
about man^s rights. Women are Invading our 
offices and driving men out of position after 
position by unfair competition; they compel 
men to contribute part of their support and 
then underbid them for every desirable posi- 
tion In sight. The equal terms that woman 
wants seem to be all the soft snaps with the 
homage of man thrown In. Man is old and 
hardened and is beginning to get used to his 
chains, but throwing girls In among a lot of 
young boys In our universities to take their 
thoughts away from their studies and to keep 
them dancing attendance on the fair sex and 
digging into the paternal exchequer to buy 
theater tickets and soda water and candy is 
carrying the joke a little too far.'' 



Some Psychical Sex Characteristics 39 

"Poor man, it's a pity about him," retorted 
Miss Geddes. "Crows will come home to 
roost, you know. Man naturally rebels when 
he is compelled to take a dose of his own med- 
icine. Whose fault is it, Fd like to know, that 
woman supplies the demand for cheap labor? 
If there were any fairness in man he would see 
to it that the scale of wages was regulated by 
the quality and quantity of the work instead of 
by the sex of the worker. But of course this 
would deprive him of an excuse for inveighing 
against women and Chinamen as cheap la- 
borers. 

"And as for man hanging to the straps in 
the street cars, it serves him exactly right. If 
women were permitted to vote how long do 
you suppose the street-car companies would 
be allowed to bulldoze the public in this way ? 
They take good care to collect the fares and a 
few thousand dollars slipped into the hands of 
public servants secures them the privilege of 
packing human beings into the street cars like 
sardines. 

"And as for our young men in college, if 



40 The Education of Our Girls 

they are such imbeciles as you paint them, it is 
about time that they had chaperones appointed 
to protect the poor dears against the girls! 
But judging from the statement of President 
Eliot, the young men do not seem to be fall- 
ing very rapidly into the nets which the young 
college women are spreading for them." 

"Now, will you be good," said Miles 
O'Brien, turning with an air of mock serious- 
ness to Mr. Eaton. "Evidently segregation 
must look elsewhere than to man's wrongs for 
support when coeducation has such a brilliant 
advocate as Miss Geddes. I vote for fair 
play. Let's divide the thing between them; 
give man the coeducation and woman the 
segregation. 

"I taught for many years in a university 
where we had coeducation and my heart al- 
ways bled for the poor girls. Girl freshmen 
bloomed like roses and lilies, but by the time 
they had grown into seniors the blood had all 
faded from their cheeks and the drawn looks 
on their faces would melt the heart of a stone. 
In those years when every young woman's 



Some Psychical Sex Characteristics 41 

fancy should be turning to poetry, to music 
and painting, with a little serious work thrown 
in for condiment, it's a sin that cries to heaven 
for vengeance to have them wasting their 
beautiful young lives trying to keep up with 
the young men in mathematics and in civil 
engineering. If they listened to nature's voice 
during those years, they would be designing 
pretty gowns and Easter bonnets and growing 
into graceful ways that would soften the heart 
of even such confirmed bachelors as our 
friend Shannon. Give the dears higher edu- 
cation, of course, but give it to them in smaller 
doses. If they don't get married, give them 
six or seven years to drink It in instead of 
four. There is no sense in hurrying up the 
dear creatures. They have so many things to 
learn that never bother a man's head. And 
besides they are handicapped in other ways; 
look at the time it takes them every morning 
to fix their hair and dress becomingly, at least 
if It takes them as long as it takes Kate." I 
"Oh, it's easy for you to talk, Miles," said 
Mrs. O'Brien, "but you keep the whole house 



42 The Education of Our Girls 

waiting on you when you are dressing. Your 
studs have to be put in for you and your tie 
fastened, and the dear knows all. Women 
aren't a bit slower in dressing than men are." 

"It is all well enough to laugh at the ques- 
tion," said Miss Ruth, "but it is really a very 
serious matter for all that. A good college 
education is now a necessity to all of our 
women who must provide for themselves and 
who would rise above the rank of clerks and 
domestic servants. There seem to be Insuper- 
able obstacles whichever way one turns. On 
the one hand we are told that segregation 
leaves woman weak and defenseless; and on 
the other hand we are assured that coeduca- 
tion destroys her physical constitution and 
takes the young men's thoughts away from 
their work. Dr. Studevan should be able to 
find a solution for us. The key to the situa- 
tion is surely not to be found in the constantly 
changing social environment but in the process 
of mental unfolding." 

"Well, I tried to give my views at our last 
meeting, but Shannon wouldn't give me a 



Some Psychical Sex Characteristics 43 

chance to talk. The root of the whole ques- 
tion, as I said, lies in the fundamental differ- 
ence between the mental and moral life of 
man and the mental and moral life of woman. 
When I first took up the study of psychology, 
some fifteen or twenty years ago, I felt that 
undue emphasis had been laid upon this con- 
trast between the character of man and the 
character of woman. It was evident, of 
course, that woman was more beautifully at- 
tired and that man had a more convenient, if 
less artistic, costume. They both spoke the 
same language; they delighted in the same 
books ; they worshiped at the same altar ; they 
ate the same food. But on closer acquaintance 
the superficiality of this view became evident. 
The longer I have known men and women and 
the more intimately I have become acquainted 
with their methods, with the springs of their 
actions and the color of their thoughts, the 
more unlike each other they have seemed until 
now my difficulty is to find points of resem- 
blance, so completely do they seem to differ 
from each other." 



44 The Education of Our Girls 

"Doctor, you talk as If you were lecturing 
to your class in pedagogy this evening," said 
Miss Geddes, "and as usual dealing in glit- 
tering generalities. Would it be asking too 
much of you to point out to us some of these 
striking differences of which you are always 
talking?" 

"Why, I don't mind. Miss Geddes, if you 
will only be good enough to listen to me. To 
begin with, in their loves there is this impor- 
tant difference between man and woman: the 
instinct for concealment seems to be an inte- 
gral part of man's love, while woman glories 
in her love. In religion there is a similar dif- 
ference. The man who parades his religion 
is usually wanting in genuine piety and the 
prudent man suspects him of designs on other 
people's purses. The piety of woman, on the 
contrary, finds no need for concealment. 
Again, a woman suddenly confronted with 
overwhelming evidence of some fault, will 
deny everything until her conscience has had 
time to assert Itself and compel her to make 
a confession ; whereas, man, under similar cir- 



Some Psychical Sex Characteristics 45 

cumstances, will break down Immediately and 
admit his fault until his intelligence comes to 
his aid in concocting a lie. 

"There is a difference between man and 
woman more fundamental than any of these: 
woman reaches the truth directly by a sort of 
Intuition, while man gropes his way slowly 
toward the truth as the conclusion of an argu- 
ment. In the one case the propositions of an 
argument are fused into one conscious state; 
In the other they are merely articulated. 
Again, woman is predominantly emotional, 
while man's conduct is more amenable to rea- 
son and argument; a difference which is due 
In large measure to the difference In their way 
of arriving at truth. George Eliot has pic- 
tured a fundamental difference in the sympa- 
thies of man and woman In her portrayal of 
the characters of Savonarola and Romola. 
Savonarola was carried away by his enthu- 
siasm for principle and was often blind 
to the sufferings of the individuals about 
him, while Romola's broader view was 
dimmed by her tears of sympathy for the 



46 The Education of Our Girls 

sufferings of those with whom she came 
in contact. 

"Now, the bearing of all this on the ques- 
tion of coeducation seems to me quite evident. 
The multiplying of several unlike numbers by 
the same number must give unlike results. So, 
too, a like treatment of unlike natures must 
result in different developments. The princi-, 
pie here involved carries us much further than 
the question of coeducation. There are 
scarcely two boys or two girls in any of our 
schools who receive similar treatment without 
its resulting in injury to one or the other. The 
aim of all true education must be to deal with 
each child according to his needs, and these 
needs will differ in proportion as the children 
differ from one another." 

"That view is set forth beautifully in *The 
Ambassador of Christ,' by Cardinal Gib- 
bons," said Miss Ruth. "Have you the book, 
Mr. O'Brien? . . . Thank you. Let me 
read these few lines (page 50) : 

" 'The professor who would aim at shaping 
the character of all his students according to 



Some Psychical Sex Characteristics 47 

one uniform ideal standard would be attempt- 
ing the impossible, because he would be 
striving to do what is at variance with the 
laws of nature and of nature's God. In all 
the Creator's works, there is charming variety. 
There are no two stars in the firmament equal 
in magnitude and splendor, "for star differeth 
from star in glory"; there are no two leaves 
of the forest alike, no two grains of sand, no 
two human faces. Neither can there be two 
men absolutely identical in mental capacity or 
moral disposition. One may excel in solid 
judgment, another in tenacity of memory, and 
a third in brilliancy of Imagination. One is 
naturally grave and solemn, another is gay 
and vivacious. One is of a phlegmatic, 
another of a sanguine temperament. One is 
constitutionally shy, timid, and reserved; 
another is bold and demonstrative. One is 
taciturn, another has his heart in his mouth. 
The teacher should take his pupils as God 
made them, and aid them in bringing out the 
hidden powers of their soul. If he tries to 
adopt the leveling process by casting all in the 



48 The Education of Our Girls 

same mold, his pupils will become forced and 
unnatural in their movements; they will lose 
heart, their spirit will be broken, their man- 
hood crippled and impaired. 

" ' "I will respect human liberty," says 
Monseigneur Dupanloup, "in the smallest 
child even more scrupulously than in a grown 
man; for the latter can defend him.self against 
me, while the child can not. Never shall I 
insult the child so far as to regard him as 
material to be cast into a mold, and to emerge 
with a stamp given by my will." 

" 'Instead of laboring to crush and subdue 
their natural traits and propensities, he should 
rather divert them into a proper chan- 
nel. ... 

*' 'Jesus Christ is the model Teacher. His 
conduct toward His disciples is the best exam- 
ple to be followed. He did not attempt to 
quench their natural spirit, but He purified 
and sanctified it in the fires of Pentecost. 
After Peter had graduated in the school of his 
Master, he remained the same ardent man 
that he had ever been.' " 



|b Some Psychical Sex Characteristics 49 

"The Cardinal Is entirely right," said Dr. 
Studevan. "Every line of psychology Insists 
upon the truth that It Is the business of the 
teacher to go to the pupil and to deal with him 
according to his needs. The situation In the 
schools renders It Impossible to deal with each 
child separately, and some classification Is nec- 
essary In order to economize time and to se- 
cure system. This classification must be based 
not alone on differences of actual attainment 
but on the differences of the underlying na- 
tures of the children. Now, since the most ' 
fundamental of these differences seem to be 
associated with sex, a classification along sex \ 
lines would seem to be desirable." 

"But, Doctor, Is not this placing theory 
above natural law? If the home Is nature's 
school, coeducation Is nature's plan and a sep- 
aration of the sexes Is consequently a viola- 
tion of it." U ^4' 

"Miss Ruth, we must not be misled by thcj,^ ^ 
Professor's fallacies. You see, he was com- ^ 
pelled to defend coeducation, and we mustn't 
be too hard on him. It would never do to 



V 



50 The Education of Our Girls 

take it for granted that he has failed to make 
a close analysis of such Institutions as the 
home and the school. In any such analysis he 
must have discovered many fundamental dif- 
ferences of the utmost Importance to a proper 
understanding of this question. The school is 
but a specialized offshoot of the home and it 
is very far from being analogous to It. The 
school does not deal with Infancy nor does it 
normally Include the social life of the pupil. 
'The need of social intercourse between the 
sexes has been pointed out, but it is not at all 
necessary that this social intercourse should 
take place in the classroom. Again, we might 
very well concede the advantage of mixed fac- 
ulties which would impart to the young women 
the strength and quality that is supposed to 
emanate from the masculine character and 
which would give the boys that cultural de- 
velopment which can only be secured through 
a woman. Moreover, the question of Coedu- 
cation versus Segregation applies more partic- 
ularly to the period of adolescence — to the 
high school and college. Many advocates of 



Some Psychical Sex Characteristics 5 1 

segregation for the older pupils are quite con- 
tent with coeducation in the elementary 
schools. And among all primitive peoples, 
however closely the sexes may be associated 
in infancy, their occupations become quite 
sharply differentiated before the children 
reach the period of adolescence. So that the 
argument from nature is clearly in favor of 
segregation and no one is more keenly aware 
of this than the Professor himself. There 
are, however, so many phases of this subject 
which merit our consideration that I do not 
dare take them up now. The Professor is 
already growing restless; he is afraid, I sup- 
pose, that his landlady will lock him out." 



CHAPTER III 

The Grading of School Children 

"It is a pleasant surprise to find you here to- 
night, Miss Ruth," said Professor Shannon 
on entering the room. "I had about recon- 
ciled myself to your deserting us for the con- 
cert, but I really wanted you to bring your 
experience to bear on the wild theories of our 
friend Studevan." 

*'What is there so particularly wild about 
them?" 

''You surely are not going to back him up 
in this! If we grade children not merely ac- 
cording to differences in age and acquirement, 
but according to differences in disposition and 
inclination, it will necessitate as many grades 
in the school as there are children. Won^t 
you admit that the theory is visionary and 
impractical?" 

"I don't think we quite understand Dr. 
Studevan, Of course he could not mean what 



The Grading of School Children 53 

you seem to find in his statement. But here is 
the Doctor; he will help us out, I am sure." 

'*I am always delighted to help a lady out, 
Miss Ruth, but as for our friend Shannon, I 
think I would rather help him in. Isn't Miss 
Geddes here this evening?" 

"Oh, yes; when you see Professor Shannon 
you never have far to look for Miss Geddes. 
She has just left the room with Mrs. O'Brien 
— but speak of angels." 

"Who has been talking about me?" 

"Professor Shannon, of course," replied 
Dr. Studevan; "he heard the rustle of your 
wings as soon as he came in." 

"Doctor," said Miss Ruth, "won't you tell 
us what you meant by the new system of grad- 
ing school children that you suggested last 
Friday evening? Do you mean that we are 
to abandon the present system of grading 
children according to age and attainment and 
to substitute a gradation according to differ- 
ences in the dispositions and tendencies of the 
children ? Or do you advocate a system based 
on both of these principles?" 



54 The Education of Our Girls 

"Is not that a rather large contract for one 
evening? It usually furnishes me sufficient 
matter for three or four lectures. But really, 
I had no intention of suggesting a new system 
of grading school children, although I do be- 
lieve it quite possible to improve the present 
system in many ways. I suppose you refer to 
my innocent remark that unlike children 
should receive unlike treatment, which is a 
very different thing from suggesting that 
children who differ from one another should 
be put into different rooms.'* 

"Of course you might have to make com- 
promises,'' said Miss Ruth, "since no two chil- 
dren are exactly alike, and naturally we could 
not have a separate room and a separate 
teacher for each child. But if the treatment 
of the children should vary in the same pro- 
portion as the children differ from one another 
in character and in developmental tendencies, 
such differences surely should be taken into 
account in placing the children in the various 
grades. It would evidently be an advantage 
to bring together in the same room and under 



The Grading of School Children 55 

the same teacher the children who most closely 
resemble one another." 

"That is your conclusion, perhaps, but it is 
not my statement and it is very far from my 
thought. Contrast is a principle of art, and 
unlikeness is characteristic of all nature. Look 
at the variety in the plant life that clothes the 
hillside and flourishes in the valley. Again, 
It Is the unlikeness of flower and insect that 
render these creatures indispensable to each 
other. And in the great cycle of life how 
close is the interdependence of plant and ani- 
mal, of earthworm and bacterium. This con- 
trast and opposition is an all-pervasive prin- 
ciple of life; its presence is essential even 
within the narrow limits of the protozoon^s 
body, whose growth and nutrition depend 
essentially on the presence of antagonistic ele- 
ments. The animalcule grows to Inconvenient 
size and divides Into two daughter cells ; each 
daughter cell In due time repeats the process, 
but if we continue our observation we will find 
that the growth and multiplication diminish 
as we proceed from generation to generation. 



56 The Education of Our Girls 

Usually after a limited number of generations 
the vital manifestations cease unless two 
divergent Individuals meet and fuse and thus 
rejuvenate the life process. 

*'This principle does not halt at the fron- 
tiers of life; all activity in the inanimate world 
is similarly conditioned. The flow of heat de- 
pends upon differences In temperature. The 
thunder of Niagara and the mighty rush of the 
Whirlpool Rapids, which Huxley has so beau- 
tifully compared to life itself, are but the 
manifestations of water seeking equilibrium. 
If from this we turn our eyes to the opposite 
frontier of created being, where else shall we 
find the source of the divine discontent which 
fills the soul of the artist except in the contrast 
between the Inward vision and its outward ex- 
pression ? 

"Unlikeness Is also Indispensable to the 
joy and frultfulness of social intercourse. 
Every night and morning for years I have de- 
voutly offered up the Scotchman's prayer: *0 
God, gle us a gude conceit o' oursel,' and 
while I feel that Divine Providence has never 



The Grading of School Children 57 

answered any other of my prayers so abun- 
dantly, still I promise you that if ever I find a 
man just like myself — I will most scrupulously 
avoid him. It is hard to imagine anything 
more stupid than a group of people each one 
of whom is exactly like every other. The 
activity of a magnet is proportionate to the 
difference between its poles. In social inter- 
course likewise the mental activity evoked is 
a function not of similarities but of differences 
among the persons concerned. In his 'Second 
Thoughts of an Idle Fellow/ Jerome K. 
Jerome has given us a picture of the ennui of 
the isolated honeymoon. We have often been 
told that half a century of wedded bliss molds 
the minds and hearts as well as the features of 
husband and wife into the likeness of each 
other; we see them sitting beside the fire on 
a winter's evening with no need for speech 
since they are 'Two souls with but a single 
thought; two hearts that beat as one.' I ad- 
mit the beauty of it all; but it is well to re- 
member that it is the beauty of rest and peace, 
perhaps of heaven. It is not the manifesta- 



58 The Education of Our Girls 

tion of progress, of activity, of change and 
growth." 

"If you were logical, Doctor," said Miss 
Geddes, "you would be an advocate of tempo- 
rary marriages. If the stimulation to mutual 
activity disappears so rapidly, a change would 
be quite advantageous In a couple of years, 
don't you think?" 

"Your conclusion hardly follows, Miss 
Geddes — at least when Providence is merci- 
ful. A year or two of married life may bring 
changes, you know, and Introduce many new 
forms of activity, such as pacing the floor at 
night, and many differences of opinion con- 
cerning the proper discipline for children." 

"Studevan Is at his old tricks to-night," said 
the Professor; "he Is treating us to grandilo- 
quent perorations and dodging the question at 



issue." 



"No one expects Shannon to see the point 
this evening, his thoughts are far too pleas- 
antly occupied to follow the argument. Pro- 
fessor, if you will just look this way and try 
to concentrate your attention for a few min- 



The Grading of School Children 59 

utes I will endeavor to explain the situation to 
you. 

"I have just been pointing out the advantage 
of having little boys and little girls sit side by 
side in our schoolrooms. Their embryonic 
love affairs need hardly give any one concern 
and the children have much to learn from one 
another. The boy will be kept on his good 
behavior, his gentleness and his chivalry will 
be developed and he will learn his first lessons 
in protecting the weak and in seeing the world 
through the eyes of others; and the girl will 
lay deep the foundations of an understanding 
of the masculine nature which will prove of 
inestimable value to her in later life when she 
undertakes the difficult task of managing a 
husband. 

*'Men and women are so different from 
each other that it is quite essential to begin 
early to give them such a mutual understand- 
ing as will put the divorce court out of busi- 
ness. Moreover, there are many beneficial 
results to be derived from the grouping in the 
same room of children with unlike dispositions 



6o The Education of Our Girls 

and unlike tendencies. Even more than in the 
case of adults, the unlikeness of the members 
of the youthful group stimulates mental activ- 
ity. The adult has resources within himself; 
he has the key to many a storeroom in nature's 
treasury, and in his library he may commune 
with the choice minds of all the ages. 

"On the other hand, imitation is the chief, 
I had almost said the only, avenue of knowl- 
edge open to the child. Imitation is some- 
what like gravity, the strength of the impulse 
seems to vary Inversely as the distance. The 
mind and the character of the teacher may 
give direction to the child's endeavor, but the 
child or the man is strongly moved to Imitate 
only those who stand near him. It Is quite 
essential, therefore, to the child's unfolding 
life that he be provided with a reasonably 
large group of divergent models. In a prop- 
erly conducted schoolroom the children learn 
far more from one another than they do from 
either books or teachers. 

"If the differences In the characters and in 
the developmental tendencies of the children 



The Grading of School Children 6 1 

are to be taken Into account at all in grouping 
them into grades, it should be for the purpose 
of separating children who are duplicates of 
each other — one of a kind is sufficient in any 
room. In the old-time school, where the end 
sought was erudition rather than education, 
the process of cramming might have been 
facilitated by the uniformity of the children; 
but in the modern school, where the whole 
effort is to promote growth and development 
in the children, the chief needs are a stimu- 
lating environment and a reasonably wide 
range of models for imitation." 

"The little country school which I attended 
as a boy," said Mr. Eaton, * Vould come very 
near filling the bill according to the Doctor's 
specifications. He certainly would have no 
room to complain of want of differences 
among the children. There were some fifty 
of us of both sexes and all ages crowded Into 
one little room 20 X 30 feet, and the same 
teacher taught the a, b, c's and the higher 
mathematics with some French and Latin on 
the side, and I must say that I saw as 



62 The Education of Our Girls 

good work done In that little school as I have 
ever seen in after years in the high school or 
college. And come to think of it, a great 
many of those fifty children have attained no 
small measure of success in after life. Not to 
speak of your humble servant, who of course 
is a shining light, two of the boys have be- 
come lawyers, one is a judge, another is the 
president of a great railroad, another is a 
doctor of national reputation, two of them are 
university professors, and one of them honors 
the miter." 

"If your school is a fair sample of the 
country school," said Professor Shannon, 
*'why not do away with the grades altogether? 
Isn't that the logical outcome of the Doctor's 
argument?" 

"I believe it is conceded," said Miss Ruth, 
"that the country school has given us far more 
than its pro rata of successful men, but in ac- 
counting for this there are many things to be 
taken into consideration besides the absence 
of grades. The children are usually healthier; 
they are in Immediate contact with nature and 



The Grading of School Children 63 

they thus receive a sense training of Inesti- 
mable value such as even the best efforts of 
the city school cannot supply. The children 
In the country school are thrown more on 
their own resources and from a very early age 
develop a self-reliance and an Initiative that 
are also exceedingly difficult to Impart In a 
crowded city school. It Is to these things 
rather than to the absence of grades that the 
success of the country school is due ; neverthe- 
less, the fact that it does obtain such good 
results without grading and where the diffi- 
culties of the teacher seem so great is very 
suggestive. The matter has often puzzled 
me, but It seems from what the Doctor has 
just said that the absence of grades Is at least 
largely compensated for by the greater variety 
In the children and by the greater stimulation 
to mental activity thus evoked. I confess I 
never before thought of the matter in this 
light. I wonder if the Doctor really holds the 
absence of all grades to be an advantage?" 

"No, certainly not. A judicious grading 
will always be an advantage to both the 



64 The Education of Our Girls 

teacher and the pupil. The benefit following 
from the absence of grades in the country 
school is indirect and accidental. The really 
essential thing is that each child should be 
treated according to his needs. In the coun- 
try school the teacher by force of circum- 
stances is compelled to do this. Where he 
has to deal with so many children in every 
phase of development he is obliged to treat 
them individually. The machine mold of the 
grade is impossible nor is there any tempta- 
tion to make all the children alike, as in the 
case of large schools where the grading is 
close. 

"A successful dinner party or social evening 
demands a certain similarity as well as a cer- 
tain difference among the members of the 
group. In nothing is the social tact of the 
hostess put to a severer test than in thus bring- 
ing together just the right people. The guests 
must be chosen from the same social and intel- 
lectual plane with just enough of diversity to 
supply healthful mental stimulation — 'and this 
overdone or come tardy off' — and so, too, in 



The Grading of School Children 65 

an ideal grading, were this ever actually pos- 
sible, we should have to consider many things 
which we at present entirely Ignore. 

"In Germany they have different schools 
for the children of different social lamina, but 
this of course Is out of the question In a coun- 
try like ours. Still, It Is not Improbable that 
some modification In our present mode of 
grouping the children would prove advanta- 
geous. For Instance, the education of the 
child who Is to leave school permanently on 
the completion of the seventh or eighth grade 
might well be different In many Important re- 
spects from the education of the child who 
contemplates a college or university career. 
Again, It is an open question whether or not 
it is best for the children who have home ad- 
vantages to mingle freely with the children 
from the slums. It Is also a question whether 
or not It contributes to the mental and moral 
welfare of the poorly fed and poorly clothed 
children to be thrown Into Immediate associa- 
tion with the well-fed and well-clothed chil- 
dren of the wealthy." 



66 The Education of Our Girls 

"Pardon me for interrupting you, Doctor,'^ 
said Mrs. O'Brien, "Miles is looking hungry 
and we will all enjoy the rest of this conversa- 
tion better around the dining-room table." 



CHAPTER IV 

Coeducation and Marriage 

"In spite of all that Dr. Studevan has said on 
the value of contrast as a stimulus to mental 
development," said Miles O'Brien as he 
passed the Roquefort to Miss Ruth, *'I came 
away from the university convinced by my 
five years of teaching co-eds that coeducation 
is a failure. Whatever may be the motives 
that actuate the young ladles In coming to the 
university, they soon divide into two well-de- 
fined groups. The members of one group 
work hard ; they usually maintain a high class 
standing and Injure their health. The mem- 
bers of the other group devote their chief at- 
tention to the young men. This results In 
cardiac enlargement rather than in cerebral 
development. And as to the young men, why 
of course It would be unreasonable to expect 
any young man with red blood in his veins to 
devote his evenings to physics, to higher math- 



68 The Education of Our Girls 

ematlcs, or to Roman law when there Is a 
sweet young lady waiting to entertain him. 

"Love and war may well go together, but 
the emotional disturbances evoked by love In 
the young man of twenty are far too great to 
permit of serious study. If our young men's 
minds are to be sufficiently developed during 
their college days to Insure for them a success- 
ful career In life, I am afraid the young ladles 
will have to be banished from the university 
and love-making postponed until the school 
period Is completed." 

"Why should the young man In college de- 
vote all his evenings to physics or to Roman 
law?" demanded Miss Geddes. "Are mate- 
rial prosperity and success In outwitting one's 
fellows the only things for which our young 
men should be trained In the colleges and uni- 
versities? Their physical strength Is devel- 
oped on the ball field and In the gymnasium, 
and their minds are trained in the laboratory 
and in the classroom. Has the aesthetic ele- 
ment In their life no value? Should they so 
far neglect their moral and social life that 



Coeducation and Marriage 69 

they cannot afford an evening or two a week 
for their friends?" 

"You are quite right," said Professor Shan- 
non; "the whole tendency of the time Is 
toward an over-emphasis of the material side 
of hfe. Time was when men worked In order 
to live; to-day It would seem that the only 
value of hfe is dollars and cents. Art and 
literature, music and song, and the joys of 
home may only be Indulged In during an occa- 
sional hour for which no other use can be 
found." 

"Is not this tendency to overestimate the 
material side of life," asked Miss Ruth, "one 
of the greatest dangers threatening our social 
existence? I was much Impressed with Pro- 
fessor Miinsterberg's article on the Ameri- 
can Woman, In The International Monthly 
for June, 1901." 

"Let me get you the number," said Mr. 
O'Brien, "we have It here on the shelf." 

"As I remember the article," said Miss 
Ruth, "he proves that the male portion of the 
community has practically lost Its appreciation 



70 The Education of Our Girls 

of all the higher things of life. Let me read 
you this page :* 

" 'The public life that I have in mind is the 
public expression of the ideal energies, the 
striving for truth and beauty, for morality and 
religion, for education and social reform, and 
their embodiment, not in the home, but in the 
public consciousness. In Germany no one of 
these functions of public life is without the 
support and ennobling influence of active 
women, but decidedly the real bulk of the 
work is done by men; they alone give to it 
character and direction, and their controlling 
influence gives to this whole manifoldness of 
national aims its strenuousness and unity; to 
carry these into the millions of homes and to 
make them living factors in the family, is the 
great task of the women there. Here, on the 
other hand, the women are the real supporters 
of the ideal endeavors: in not a few fields, 
their influence is the decisive one ; in all fields, 
this influence is felt, and the whole system 
tends ever more and more to push the men 

*The International Monthly, Vol. III., p. 624. 



Coeducation and Marriage 71 

out and the women In. Theater managers 
claim that eighty-five per cent, of their patrons 
are women. No one can doubt that the same 
percentage would hold for those who attend 
art exhibitions, and even for those who read 
magazines and literary works in general, and 
we might as well continue with the same some- 
what arbitrary figure. Can we deny that there 
are about eighty-five per cent, of women 
among those who attend public lectures, or 
who go to concerts, among those who look 
after public charities and the work of the 
churches? I do not remember ever to have 
been in a German art exhibition where at least 
half of those present were not men, but I do 
remember art exhibitions in Boston, New 
York, and Chicago where according to my 
actual count the men in the hall were less than 
five per cent, of those present.' " 

"Whatever may be said in extenuation of 
the conditions which Miinsterberg portrays in 
that article," said Professor Shannon, ''there 
are few who will challenge the truth of his 
statements. In a new country like ours It was 



72 The Education of Our Girls 

to be expected, of course, that the men ac- 
tively engaged in developing its wonderful 
physical resources would occasionally lose 
sight of the higher things; but we are in real 
danger when our schools and universities, 
which should hold aloft the lamp of truth and 
direct the attention of the young steadfastly 
toward culture and the real values of life, set 
up success in the mad race for wealth as their 
only standard. Even the churches seem to be 
forgetting the message which they were com- 
missioned to preach to the world. 

"The situation is truly alarming when a 
man so full of idealism as Mr. O'Brien op- 
poses coeducation on the ground that young 
men in college can not spare time for social in- 
tercourse. This argument pushed to its logi- 
cal conclusion would do away with courtship 
and marriage. The stress is severer in the 
ten years that follow a young man's college 
days than in any other period of his life. If 
while at college he can not find time for court- 
ship, he will not be able to afford it until he is 
thirty-five years of age, and then it will be too 



Coeducation and Marriage 73 

late, because the inclination to marry will have 
been greatly diminished before that time. 
This is probably one of the reasons for the 
abnormally high percentage of bachelors 
among college graduates. 

"But there are still more potent reasons to 
be urged against late marriages. Many re- 
ligious communities hesitate to accept candi- 
dates after they are thirty years of age. Ex- 
perience has proved that after this age a can- 
didate can not readily adjust himself to the 
new mode of life. The experience of rail- 
roads and other large corporations leads them 
to adopt a similar course. They refuse to 
appoint to important positions men who are 
over thirty-five years of age. 

"The psychology underlying both of these 
cases is the same. Such regulations constitute 
a practical recognition of the fact that the 
plastic period of man's life ends in his thirtieth 
or thirty-fifth year. And if a woman finds it 
impossible to adjust herself to the conditions 
of a nun's life after she is thirty and a man 
finds it diflUcult or Impossible to succeed in a 



74 The Education of Our Girls 

new line of business after he has reached 
thirty-five, how can we expect them to rise 
above the gross material things of life if the 
development of the heart and of the aesthetic 
faculties be delayed until after this period? 
And above all, how can we expect two human 
beings to blend into the unity of a single life 
at the age of thirty who up to this time have 
been so engrossed in the material things of life 
as to be unable to afford even an occasional 
hour to satisfy the promptings of the 
heart? 

"It is a very significant fact that the in- 
crease in the number of divorces is in some di- 
rect ratio to the average age at which people 
marry. To delay marriage until man has first 
won a position in the world is to render true 
marriage impossible. Marriage should be the 
preparation for lifers work and not its ter- 



mination.** 



"That is an argument worthy of a bache- 
lor," said Mr. Eaton. "I believe I have heard 
it said that old maids have the best children 
in the world and that a doctor never takes his 



Coeducation and Marriage 75 

own medicine. Father Tom always used to 
say that it was an unfair division of labor to 
have the same man do the practicing and the 
preaching. But if Professor Shannon had to 
dig up the coin to support three or four young 
men in college, to set them up in business, and 
to furnish their offices, and to pay for style 
for the first ten or twelve years while the 
young professionals are waiting for clients, he 
would probably not be in any hurry to become 
a grandfather. No practical young man with 
a proper amount of self-respect will think of 
marrying until he has made a position for 
himself which will enable him to support a 
wife. There Is truth in the old saying, 'When 
poverty comes in at the door, love flies out 
through the window.' Running a home in 
these days is too serious an undertaking for 
youngsters. Let the young men and young 
women enjoy life and freedom while they can, 
the burdens and responsibilities will come soon 
enough." 

"Father Tom should be here to-night," said 
the Doctor; *'his preaching of the Gospel of 



76 The Education of Our Girls 

Christ doesn't seem to have made a Christian 
of Mr. Eaton. The argument to which we 
have just listened is conclusive if we accept the 
gospel of Mammon instead of the Gospel of 
Christ. 'All these things will I give thee if 
falling down thou wilt adore me.' But how 
can we square such a line of reasoning with 
the precepts of the Master? 'Do ye good, 
therefore, hoping for nothing thereby.' 'Seek 
ye first the kingdom of God and His justice 
and all these things will be added unto you.' 
What doth it profit a man to gain the whole 
world if he lose his own soul?' 'See the lilies 
of the field how they toil not and neither do 
they spin, and yet Solomon in all his glory 
was not arrayed as one of these.' 'The life is 
more than the meat, the body more than the 
raiment.' We shall have to ask Father Tom 
to preach a series of sermons for the special 
benefit of some of his parishioners. 

"But apart from the teaching of the Mas- 
ter, I am afraid we shall find that such argu- 
ments as that put forth by Mr. Eaton run 
counter to the evidence furnished us by socio!- 



Coeducation and Marriage 77 

ogy and psychology. What great happiness 
has ever come to men who make the acquisi- 
tion of wealth their chief business of life? I 
know many poor men who would not care to 
change places with some of the multi-million- 
aires who have recently come before the 
public. 

**I suppose none of us would find it difficult 
to call to mind men who, like the fool in the 
gospel, 'laid up much treasure for many years,' 
and when they turned to enjoy their wealth 
they were confronted with the sentence on the 
wall, 'Fool, this day thy soul shall be de- 
manded of thee.' When one of these men 
would build a home for himself he must em- 
ploy another's brain to design it for him. The 
decoration of its interior reflects no thought of 
his; even the private library is selected by 
another's taste. The house is a prison, not a 
home. He is as great a stranger in the bosom 
of his own family as he is in the new mansion 
constructed by his dollars. After all, we can 
no more change the seasons of a man's life 
than we can control the seasons of the year. 



78 The Education of Our Girls 

As he sows in the springtime of life so shall 
he reap in its autumn. 

^'During childhood and adolescence all 
achievement derives its value from its rela- 
tionship to the members of the home group. 
During the twenties the ties which bound the 
members of the home group into a solidarity 
of thought, action and aspiration gradually 
disappear. If the members of the family are 
held together after this it is by artificial re- 
straints. This is nature's way of dispersing 
the children and leading them to build homes 
of their own. But if new family ties are not 
formed while the old ties are disintegrating, 
the Individual Is likely to remain for the rest 
of his days a solitary wanderer on the face of 
the earth. From twenty to thirty is the period 
of greatest fecundity; It is the termination of 
the plastic period of life; It is the time within 
which God has set His decree that man should 
take unto himself a wife and that 'they shall 
be two In one flesh,' and that 'they shall in- 
crease and multiply and fill the earth.' " 

"Granting the desirability of early mar- 



Coeducation and Marriage 79 

riages," said Miss Ruth, ''wouldn't it be well 
for some one to collect the facts in the case, so 
as to ascertain the effect of coeducation on the 
marrying age? In some of our universities 
we have had coeducation for more than a gen- 
eration and It should not be difficult to tabu- 
late the results. 

"Professor Miinsterberg and many others 
seem to be of the opinion that coeducation 
does not promote early marriage. He has 
many suggestive passages on the subject In this 
article. Here, for Instance, Is one:* 

" 'I take for granted that no American girl 
loses In attractiveness by passing through a 
college, or through other forms of the higher 
and the highest education. But we have only 
to look at the case from the other side, and 
we shall find ourselves at once at the true 
source of the calamity. The woman has not 
become less attractive as regards marriage; 
but has not marriage become less attractive to 
the woman? and long before the Freshman 
year did not the outer Influences begin to Impel 

*Op. cit., p. 614. 



8o The Education of Our Girls 

in that direction? Does it not begin in every 
country school where the girls sit on the same 
bench with the boys, and discover, a long, long 
time too early, how stupid those boys are? 
Coeducation, on the whole unknown in Ger- 
many, has many desirable features; it 
strengthens the girls; it refines the boys; it 
creates a comradeship between the two sexes 
which decreases sexual tension in the years of 
development; but these factors make, at the 
same time, for an indifference toward the 
other sex, toward a disillusionism, which must 
show In the end.' " 

"The eff'ects of coeducation and of higher 
education on marriage and on home life," 
said Dr. Studevan, "are to-day subjects 
of profound interest to every student of soci- 
ology, but the hour is so late that I, at least, 
shall have to forego the pleasure of further 
discussion until our next meeting." 



"^> 



CHAPTER V 

Symmetry in the Cultural Development of the 

Sexes 

As Mr. Eaton entered the library on Friday 
evening, a few minutes after the usual time, 
he found the other members of the little circle 
in an expectant attitude. 

"Mr. Eaton," said Mr. O'Brien, "the 
members of this club have just gone over the 
minutes of our last meeting and have decided 
that, as this is a Christian club, you should 
clear yourself of the charge of materiahsm of 
which you stood convicted at the close of our 
last meeting." 

"I hope that accusation by Dr. Studevan 
does not amount to conviction by this club. 
Moreover, if we exclude from membership 
in the Christian church all those who agree 
with me in thinking that marriage should be 
reserved for men and women who have 
reached their full development and who are 



82 The Education of Our Girls 

in a position to build homes and support them 
without relying on parental aid, I am afraid 
that the falling off in the number of Chris- 
tians will be greater than even our pessimists 
would lead us to believe. 

*'Dr. Studevan's dream of youths and 
maidens seeking the rosy bowers of love be- 
neath the classic shades of Alma Mater and 
the resulting complications of valedictories 
and graduating exercises with bridal veils and 
wedding marches is too fantastic to find ac- 
ceptance by practical men in these practical 
days. Life has become too complex and the 
struggle for existence too severe to admit of 
such pastorals in real life. Miss Ruth gave 
the argument a fine turn when she called in 
Professor Miinsterberg to prove that coedu- 
cation Is the new institution destined by Divine 
Providence to keep the boys and girls from 
seeking marriage until they have grown to 
years of discretion." 

"Professor Miinsterberg's argument," said 
Miss Geddes, "is not likely to be accepted as 
final. His ideal may perhaps suffice for the 



Cultural Development of the Sexes 83 

average German girl, who, he says, will marry 
any one that she thinks will not make her un- 
happy, but this ideal Is not destined to find 
acceptance In this country. The American 
girl has tasted freedom and will not again 
allow the chains of ignorance to be fastened 
on her soul, nor will she allow any one else to 
choose for her a partner for life. The malice 
of his whole argument is too near the surface : 
woman must not be allowed to attend coedu- 
cational Institutions lest in this way she should 
gain such a clear insight into man's dullness 
and coarseness as would make her refuse to 
rescue him from his forlorn bachelor condi- 
tion. The American girl very rightly refuses 
to be led blindfolded into marriage bonds. 
She Insists that man shall render himself 
worthy of her before she accepts him." 

^'Doesn't it seem about time," said Profes- 
sor Shannon, "that some one came to Dr. Stu- 
devan's rescue ? He has been strenuously op- 
posing coeducation and advocating the higher 
education of woman, and at the last meeting 
of this club he appeared as the champion of 



84 The Education of Our Girls 

early marriage. Now, if Miinsterberg proves 
anything In his article, it is that the chief ob- 
stacle to early marriage in this country is the 
higher education of woman. Since you have 
all taken to quoting Miinsterberg, you will 
not, I suppose, object to my reading a passage 
from him.* 

" ' Coeducation means only equality; but 
the so-called higher education for girls means, 
under the conditions of American life of 
to-day, decidedly not the equality, but the su- 
periority of women. In Germany, even the 
best educated woman — with the exception 
once more of the few rare and ambitious 
scholars — feels her education inferior to that 
of the young man of the same set, and thus 
inferior to the mental training of her probable 
husband. The foundations of his knowledge 
He deeper, and the whole structure is built up 
In a more systematic way. This Is true of 
every one who has passed through a gymna- 
sium, and how much more Is it true of those 
who have gone through the university I Law, 

*0p. cit. pp. 615, 616. 



Cultural Development of the Sexes 85 

medicine, divinity, engineering, and the aca- 
demic studies of the prospective teacher are in 
Germany all based essentially upon a scholarly 
training, and are thus, first of all, factors of 
general education, — powers to widen the hori- 
zon of the Intellect. All this Is less true in 
America; the lawyer, the physician, the 
teacher, the engineer, obtain excellent prepa- 
ration for the profession: but In a lower 
degree his studies continue his general culture 
and education; and the elective system allows 
him to anticipate the professional training even 
in college. And, on the other side, as for the 
business man who may have gone through col- 
lege with a general education in view — how 
much, or better, how little of his culture can 
be kept alive? Commerce and industry, 
finance and politics absorb him, and the beau- 
tiful college time becomes a dream; the intel- 
lectual energies, the factors of general culture 
become rusty from disuse; while she, the for- 
tunate college girl, remains in that atmosphere 
of mental Interests and Inspiration where the 
power she has gained remains fresh through 



86 The Education of Our Girls 

contact with books. The men read newspa- 
pers, and, after a while, just when the time for 
marriage approaches, she Is his superior, 
through and through, in intellectual refine- 
ment and spiritual standards. And all this 
we claim in the case of the man who has had 
a college education; but the probability is very 
great that he has not had even that. The re- 
sult is a marriage in which the woman looks 
down upon the culture of her husband; and, 
as the girl instinctively feels that it is torture 
to be the wife of a man whom she does not 
respect, she hesitates, and waits, and shrinks 
before the thought of entering upon a union 
that has so few charms.' 

"It seems quite clear that the higher educa- 
tion of woman is the one great menace to our 
social existence. It prevents marriage until 
people are too old to enjoy each other, to 
found permanent homes, or to raise families; 
and to those who will not heed the warning, 
and rashly enter the marriage state, it brings 
misery for which the divorce court seems to 
be the only relief. Labor troubles, mergers 



Cultural Development of the Sexes 87 

and frenzied finance compared with this are 
but symptoms of transitory social disorders. 
They bring to the surface evils that may be 
remedied by proper legislation, but the higher 
education of woman seems to portend the 
rapid extinction of the race itself." 

''One is hardly prepared for a flippant treat- 
ment of so serious a subject as this from a so- 
ciologist," remarked Miss Ruth. 

"During all the long ages of our growing 
civilization," said Dr. Studevan, "man mo- 
nopolized higher education, nor did he seem 
to find in this inequality of equals any cause 
for delaying marriage until the fires of youth 
were covered by the ashes of two score years. 
The undisputed superiority of man in the 
fields of culture and of higher education does 
not seem to have loomed up largely as a source 
of wedded infelicity. Even if the future 
should witness a reversal of this condition and 
woman should become man^s superior from 
a cultural point of view, it is not easy to find 
in this any good and sufficient reason why we 
should not possess our souls in peace. Since 



88 The Education of Our Girls 

education In all its phases develops and refines 
natural instincts, the higher the education and 
culture of woman are carried, the more worthy 
they will render her of marriage and of 
motherhood.'^ 

"As I understand It," said Mr. O'Brien, 
''higher education makes a woman a better 
wife and mother, provided she Is married to 
the right kind of man. 'Aye, there's the rub' 
— to find the right husband for her. During 
many years after the termination of his 
school life the young man Is kept so busy down 
on earth, looking after the substantial, get- 
ting together the brick and mortar, and lining 
the nest, that when at last he turns to look 
for his mate It Is not consoling to him to be 
told that the companions of his childhood 
have soared on the wings of education into 
the higher regions of culture where he may 
never hope to follow. If he should ever suc- 
ceed In capturing one of them, he mustn't hope 
to domesticate her in the home that he has 
labored so long to build. She will either 
pine for the freedom that she has lost and 



Cultural Development of the Sexes 89 

die of a broken heart, or fly away with him 
into her own native element. It is not sur- 
prising that there are so few college men who 
are willing to run the risk of being domesti- 
cated to a superior woman. In her willing- 
ness to sacrifice herself she will coach him for 
an hour or two in the evening before going 
out into society so that she may keep him 
from making 'breaks' and disgracing her in 
the eyes of her cultured companions. It is 
quite angelic of her to condescend to write his 
speeches for him and to help him form his 
opinions on matters of current interest, but 
somehow man doesn't thrive under these con- 
ditions. Mr. Smith was a very different man 
from Mrs. Smith's husband." 

''College graduates," said Mr. Eaton, 
"are not the only men who are suffering from 
the higher education of women. The rural 
population amongst whom I spent my boy- 
hood days suffered very severely from the 
over-education of the young women. Very 
few of the young men enjoyed the opportu- 
nity of getting a college education; while, with 



90 The Education of Our Girls 

the first wave of prosperity that reached the 
neighborhood, the mothers sent their daugh- 
ters off to convent schools. The boys were 
kept at home to work the farms. Of course 
it would have been unreasonable to expect the 
young ladies to go back to the country and be- 
come farmers' wives. They made acquaint- 
ances in the cities and married young clerks 
who knew how to dress and wax their mus- 
taches. The young men, confronted with the 
necessity of finding wives in the lower ranks 
of society or remaining bachelors, sought con- 
solation in the village saloon and ended, In 
too many cases, by drifting into the cities and 
increasing the army of the unemployed." 

"It seems to me," said Dr. Studevan, "that 
one may admit the evils which are said to 
flow from the present inequality In the distri- 
*bution of culture without becoming quite 
hopeless of the ultimate salvation of our race. 
Symmetry is a fundamental law of life and 
all violations of it entail severe penalties. The 
individual who misses symmetry in his devel- 
opment need never hope to reach the highest 



Cultural Development of the Sexes 9 1 

planes of life. The whole man must grow 
simultaneously. An over-development of any 
one faculty is likely to interfere seriously with 
the health and happiness of the individual. 
This law of symmetrical development is as 
rigid in its application to the development of 
society as it is to the development of the indi- 
vidual life. It was decreed from the begin- 
ning that man and wife should no longer be 
two separate units, but two in one flesh. It is 
evident, therefore, that all unbalanced tenden- 
cies in the development of this dual unity must 
lead to suffering and limit growth. 

"The history of all the great civilizations 
of the past gives us a picture of man and wife 
laboring under this difficulty. Man held the 
ascendancy and attempted to lift himself to 
the highest plane of culture, while, for the 
most part, he neglected the cultural develop- 
ment of his wife. When we come to under- 
stand more thoroughly the causes of the rise 
and fall of nations and of empires, we will 
probably realize that this want of symmetry 
in the mental and moral development of the 



92 The Education o£ Our Girls 

sexes has played no Inconsiderable part In the 
extinction of antique civilizations. One of the 
strongest elements In Christian civilization has 
resulted from the position which Christianity 
accords to woman. Christian marriage recog- 
nizes the equality of man and woman. And if 
Christian civilization has failed to develop 
man as rapidly as might have been expected 
from the purity and elevation of its teaching, 
the explanation Is to be found in the strength 
of Inherited tendencies. One of the slowest 
of these tendencies to yield to the influence of 
Christian teaching was that deeply ingrained 
masculine conceit which refused to recognize 
in woman a capacity for cultural development 
equal to that of man." 

"Now you seem to be talking sensibly," 
said Professor Shannon, "but the inevitable 
conclusion of your argument Is the best pos- 
sible refutation of the position that you have 
maintained all along on the question of coedu- 
cation. If symmetry and balance in the cul- 
tural development of the sexes are the ideals 
toward which we must strive, then coeduca- 



Cultural Development of the Sexes 9 3 

tion, not segregation, must be the line along 
which we should travel. 

"From your own admission, the develop- 
ment of the race has been retarded during all 
these centuries of Christian civilization by the 
fact that the cultural development of man was 
superior to that of woman; and the present 
tendency, which is lifting the cultural devel- 
opment of woman above that of man, is gen- 
erally conceded to be a prolific source of social 
evil of the gravest character. In the face of 
truths like these it is somewhat difficult to un- 
derstand how you can take the position that 
you do in opposition to coeducation, which 
would tend to keep the sexes on the same 
plane, and in support of segregation, which 
during all the long centuries of race develop- 
ment has militated against the progress of 
the race." 

"That is the difficulty with you sociolo- 
gists," said Dr. Studevan. "Perhaps it is due 
to the embryonic condition of your science; 
but, whatever be the cause, you seem to run 
off with half-baked conclusions. My opposi- 



94 The Education of Our Girls 

tlon to coeducation was in no instance based 
on a desire for inequality in the education of 
the sexes. In all our conversations I have 
steadfastly maintained that the aim of true 
education should be the fullest development 
of all the powers and faculties of the indi- 
vidual. 

"A sociologist might reasonably be ex- 
pected to understand that men and women 
were not designed by nature to be the dupli- 
cates of each other. They differ from each 
other profoundly in nature, in developmental 
tendencies and in social functions. I oppose 
coeducation because it seems to me to be based 
on ignorance of these elemental truths. It 
means for the most part the subjecting of our 
girls to educational methods which were de- 
vised to meet the needs of men, and which, 
as a consequence, fail to develop the best that 
is in woman. 

"If the scene of coeducation were shifted 
from the schools which were designed pri- 
marily to meet man^s needs into convent 
schools and academies, whose courses and 



Cultural Development of the Sexes 95 

methods grew out of the needs of women, 
how long do you suppose our young men 
would tolerate the situation? They would 
not submit to methods, however well adapted 
to meet women's needs, which failed so com- 
pletely to harmonize with the forces In their 
own natures. Whatever other results may be 
produced by subjecting our girls to the cur- 
riculum and methods which were devised to 
meet the needs of the masculine nature, it is 
perfectly certain that equality In the develop- 
ment of the sexes cannot be obtained in this 
way. 

*'Would the advocates of coeducation have 
us believe that the reason for the superiority 
of man's education in the past is to be found 
in the long prevalence of segregation? Do 
they Imply that women's schools are incapable 
of improvement or of further development? 
Can woman find In herself no elements of 
progress ? And must she forever turn to man 
and beg him to carry her forward over every 
step of the way? The prevalence of such 
views Is a further evidence of the general 



96 The Education of Our Girls 

need of biological training. Adjustment of 
Internal to external relations is an inalienable 
right and a primal function of all living be- 
ings. Whenever an external agency Is Intro- 
duced to bring about this adjustment, degen- 
eracy is the Inevitable result. Woman must 
work out her own salvation in her own way. 
All that man should be expected to do — all 
that he can do without injury to her — Is to 
provide the external means and conditions; 
the actual adjustment must come from woman 
herself." 

^'Studevan must have had a training at the 
bar," said Professor Shannon; "he has evi- 
dently learned to talk all around a subject 
when the evidence is against him. It Is ad- 
mitted on all sides that during the long ages 
when segregation prevailed the result was an 
unbalancing of the education of the sexes, 
which, even he was constrained to admit, 
played an Important role In retarding the de- 
velopment of the race. And now, under sim- 
ilar conditions, there has resulted an unbal- 
ancing in which the superiority of woman's 



Cultural Development of the Sexes 97 

education threatens the very existence of the 
race. Segregation seems to lead to very poor 
team work. 

*'The Doctor has been very careful to avoid 
pointing out any way by which equality may 
be preserved In the education of men and 
women who are segregated during the whole 
period of Individual development. And he 
makes a beautiful play for the support of the 
ladles by advocating the higher education of 
woman at a time when this same higher edu- 
cation of woman Is causing the gravest alarm 
to all those who are Interested in the welfare 
of the race.'' 

*Trofessor Miinsterberg Is quite right," 
said Miss Ruth, "when he insists that a mar- 
riage in which the woman looks down upon 
the culture of her husband is not a success. 
Every refined woman must feel It torture to be 
the wife of a man whom she does not respect, 
and this consideration, without doubt, is no 
inconsiderable factor, at present, in delaying 
marriage and in rendering it less frequent 
among our highly educated women; but the 



98 The Education of Our Girls 

remedy for this Is surely not to be found in 
retarding the cultural development of woman. 

*'0n the contrary, this state of things should 
act as a spur to man and thus help to keep 
him from being submerged in commercialism 
and in the gross materialism of the day. Our 
young men are surely not so dead to all the 
higher things of life that they will cease to 
strive to become more worthy of the esteem 
and love of cultured women.*' 

"I hope," said Dr. Studevan, "that the ladies 
do not take it for granted that Shannon reflects 
the sentiments of all our young men. In the 
progress of civilization there may always be 
discerned two parties. One of these opposes, 
on some pretext or other, every advance, every 
progressive movement of society. The mem- 
bers of this group never seem to understand 
that life in all its phases is governed by an 
inexorable law which Inflicts the death penalty 
on all who do not move forward. The saints 
and the great masters of the spiritual life 
never ceased to urge this truth upon their fol- 
lowers. Over and over again they warned 



Cultural Development of the Sexes 99 

them that not to go forward on the path of 
holiness Is to enter upon the downward way. 
And the biologist traces the beginnings of de- 
generacy In every form of life to the moment 
when the species ceased to advance. 

"Our Lord Is the great leader of the pro- 
gressive party. *LIft up your eyes, for the 
kingdom of God Is at hand.' ^Follow Me and 
let the dead bury their dead.' 'Those who 
put their hand to the plow and look back are 
not worthy of Me.' 'I have many things to 
say to you but you cannot bear them now.' 
*To what Is the kingdom of God like and 
whereunto shall I resemble It ? It Is like unto 
a grain of mustard seed which a man took and 
cast Into his garden and It grew and became 
a great tree.' All His teaching bade Israel go 
forward Into the newness of life, Into the free- 
dom of love and Into the peace of the king- 
dom. Tou have heard . . . but I say to 
you . . .' and again, 'The letter kllleth, It 
Is the spirit that giveth life.' The Scribe and 
the Pharisee, with their eyes turned to the 
past, were unable to see the beauty which He 



loo The Education of Our Girls 

pointed out; and, with their ears filled with 
the voice of the Prophets, they failed to hear 
the great truths which He spoke to them and 
their hate went out to Him and nailed Him to 
the cross. 

**We do not wonder that those who came 
after Him met with similar treatment. 
^Therefore, behold, I send to you Prophets 
and wise men and Scribes : and some of them 
you will put to death and crucify, and some 
you will scourge in your synagogues, and per- 
secute from city to city: that upon you may 
come the blood of all the just that has been 
shed upon the earth from the blood of Abel 
the just to the blood of Zacharias, the son of 
Barachias, whom you killed between the tem- 
ple and the altar.' The leaders in the way of 
life have ever been the victims of the malice 
and the hatred of the ignorant and the slug- 
gard in their own generation, and they have 
been the saints and martyrs of all subsequent 
generations. 

"In the history of Christian civilization we 
occasionally find a woman in the van of some 



Cultural Development of the Sexes i o i 

progressive movement; nor Is Jeanne d*Arc a 
solitary Instance of the penalty which such 
women pay for the privilege of serving their 
people. No one need therefore be surprised 
that a heavy penalty Is being Inflicted upon 
woman In our day for her rashness In assum- 
ing a position In the forefront of the cultural 
development of our time. But her courage 
will not fail her. The ignorant and the reac- 
tionalre, with the whole company of those 
who are so much exercised over the New 
Woman and the Higher Education of Woman 
and Woman's Rights, will disappear, and the 
future will bless woman's memory and record 
how she lifted man up from earth by the 
beauty of her life and the example of her 
noble courage In holding fast to that which is 
good." 

"Won't some one please pass round the 
hat?" said Mr. Eaton. 



CHAPTER VI 

Man and fVoman Allies — Not Competitors 

"Dr. Studevan," said Mr. Eaton, **what 
have you done with Shannon? Have you 
'mingled his blood with the blood of all the 
just that has been shed upon the earth from 
the blood of Abel the just to the blood of 
Zacharias?' " 

''No, it's not so bad as that," said Mr. 
O'Brien. "The Professor telephoned a little 
while ago that he would be late in arriving. 
Dr. Studevan did seem to pick up the question 
under discussion at the close of our last meet- 
ing and fly off with it. He got it so mixed 
up with prophets and apostles, with Jeanne 
d'Arc and the martyrs, that I don't know 
where we shall find it. But here is Shannon 
now, perhaps he has it in charge." 

"No, thank God, I have nothing in charge 
but myself; what is it you've lost?" 



Man and Woman Allies 103 

''Coeducation versus the Higher Education 
of Woman," said Miss Ruth. "Dr. Studevan 
has just been accused of having soared away 
with it into the clouds, and we hoped that you 
had rescued it and brought it back to us, as 
there are several phases of the question which 
still need illumination." 

"Oh," said Professor Shannon, "Studevan 
is so buried in the schoolroom and in his peda- 
gogical theories that he fails to see what must 
be evident to every one else who keeps abreast 
of the times. The Doctor needs a training in 
sociology and economics and a little more con- 
tact with the world where adults are engaged 
in the struggle for existence. He would have 
woman remain in the schools that from time 
immemorial fitted her to adorn the home. He 
evidently does not realize that to-day woman 
is compelled to engage in many occupations 
that man has heretofore regarded as exclu- 
sively his own and for which he was trained 
in the college and university. It must be evi- 
dent to all familiar with the facts in the case 
that the proper place for woman to receive a 



I04 The Education of Our Girls 

training for these positions is In the schools 
that have been developed for this purpose." 

"We are still confronted with the old puz- 
zle," said Miss Ruth. "Dr. Studevan Is so 
Impressed with the difference between the na- 
tures of man and woman that he seems unable 
to reconcile himself to their being trained in 
the same schools and subjected to the same 
methods; while Professor Shannon, believing 
that the old distinction between the occupa- 
tions of the sexes has, in large measure, ceased 
to exist, would have both sexes educated in the 
same schools. It is difficult to see how the two 
sides of the question may be reconciled." 

"There Is only one side to the question," 
said Miss Geddes. "We were all born free 
and equal. Man has kept woman out of her 
rights long enough. In a country that grants 
freedom to the negro, woman can no longer 
be kept in subjection. If her education In the 
past has not fitted her to enjoy equal rights 
with man, she Is determined that in the future 
she will have an education which will not 
only secure her an equal right to vote and to 



Man and Woman Allies 105 

make the laws under which she, as well as 
man, must live, but which will secure for her 
an equal share of the growing wealth of the 
country. She distinctly refuses to be any 
longer handicapped by a one-sided education." 
*This whole discussion," said Mr. O'Brien, 
''reminds me of Merrick's 'Chameleon,' which 
we used to recite as school boys. I still re- 
member some of the lines : 

" 'Oft has it been my lot to mark 

A proud, conceited, talking spark, 

With eyes that hardly served at most 

To guard their master 'gainst a post; 

Yet round the world the blade has been. 

To see whatever could be seen. 
***** 

'Two travelers of such a cast. 

As o'er Arabia's wilds they passed, 
***** 

Discoursed awhile, 'mongst other matter, 

Of the chameleon's form and nature. 
***** 

"How slow Its pace ! and then it's hue — 
Who ever saw so fine a blue !" — 



io6 The Education of Our Girls 

"Hold there," the other quick replies, 
" 'Tis green; I saw it with these eyes." 

"I've seen It, sir, as well as you. 
And must again affirm it blue." 

" 'Tis green, 'tis green, sir, I assure ye." 
"Green!" cries the other in a fury: 
"Why, sir, d'ye think I've lost my eyes?" 
" 'Twere no great loss," the friend repHes; 
"For if they always serve you thus. 
You'll find them of but little use." 

H: * ^ ^ ^ 

When, luckily, came by a third: 
To him the question they referred. 
And begged he'd tell them, if he knew, 
Whether the thing was green or blue. 

H: ^ Hs 9^ 3ic 

"Sirs," cries the umpire, "cease your 

pother. 
The creature's neither one nor t'other. 
I caught the animal last night. 
And viewed it o'er by candle light; 
I marked it well, 'twas black as jet." 

Sp ^ ^ ^ ]|S 



Man and Woman Allies 107 

'^ 'He said: and full before their sight 
Produced the beast, and lo ! — 'twas white. 

" *Both stared; the man looked wondrous 
wise: 
"My children," the chameleon cries, 
"You all are right, and all are wrong: 
When next you talk of what you view, 
Think others see as well as you : 
Nor wonder if you find that none 
Prefers your eyesight to his own.' " 

"Your chameleon story is entirely irrele- 
vant," said Miss Geddes. "In the present in- 
stance we are confronted by conditions, not 
theories. Whether the beautiful, clinging 
creature of the past, of whom the poets sang, 
was a more ideal wife than the strong, inde- 
pendent woman of our own day may be left 
to men's discussion at their clubs and smokers, 
but woman must reach a conclusion and act 
upon it. She must enter into active competi- 
tion with man in the professions, in trade, in 
commerce, and in all fields of human industry. 
She has no room for hesitation between the 



io8 The Education of Our Girls 

education that fitted her for the position which 
she occupied in the past and the education 
which is at present being given to her com- 
petitors. The advocates of segregation seem 
to be dreaming of conditions which have 
passed away forever, or else they are dishon- 
est enough to wish to take an unfair advantage 
of woman by trying to induce her to enter the 
field of competition with a pitiably Inadequate 
preparation." 

"My dear Miss Geddes," said Dr. Stude- 
van, "I am the last man in the world who 
would contribute in any way to the handicap- 
ping of woman in the struggle for existence. 

"The profound changes which are taking 
place at present in the social and economic 
conditions of the country are pressing very 
heavily on both sexes ; and I believe the pres- 
sure of this change is more severe upon 
woman than It is upon man. All phases of 
education for both sexes must be readjusted 
so as to properly equip men and women for 
these new conditions. I have never advocated 
a continuance of educational methods for 



Man and Woman Allies 109 

either sex which were shaped to meet con- 
ditions that have ceased to exist, but surely one 
may recognize this need of change in educa- 
tional ideals and in educational methods with- 
out thereby advocating an identity of ideals or 
of methods in the training of pupils who differ 
from each other in nature, in developmental 
tendencies and in social functions, and who 
are, after all, destined to occupy different 
ground in the struggle for existence. 

"A fundamental law of life seems to be 
ignored by those who talk most about compe- 
tition between man and woman. The little 
green puddles by the roadside are crowded 
with living beings, but they are not all com- 
petitors. The plant forms, to which it owes 
its green color, live upon the carbon dioxide 
and nitrogenous waste matter, both of which 
are supplied in large measure by minute ani- 
mals, while these animals in turn depend upon 
the oxygen and food material supplied by the 
plants. These creatures are allies and not 
competitors in the struggle for existence; 
neither could long continue to live without the 



1 1 o The Education of Our Girls 

other. Plant competes with plant and animal 
with animal. Competition always presup- 
poses an identity of function. 

*'Man and woman can never be competitors 
in any true sense of the word; they were so 
formed by nature as to be indispensable to 
each other. The competition between them 
is superficial and accidental. It is not sur- 
prising, of course, that confusion prevails in 
periods of social upheaval and violent eco- 
nomic change. When the atmosphere clears, 
woman will be found occupying a somewhat 
different position from that which she has 
occupied in the past, and man will still 
find abundant room to live; and the mutual 
helpfulness of the sexes will go on as 
of old. 

'The readjustment of educational methods 
is one of the most serious problems which 
confront us to-day, and it should be ap- 
proached with calmness and with an entire ab- 
sence of partisan feeling. The conditions of 
the environment into which the pupils must 
enter on leaving school should be kept con- 



Man and Woman Allies 1 1 1 

stantly in mind by those who undertake to 
guide the unfolding life of the pupil. The 
problems presented to a young woman on en- 
tering into the life of one of our cities to-day 
are very different from those presented to a 
young man. His equipment would not enable 
her to solve her problems. From whatever 
point you view the matter, whether it be from 
the differences of nature or the differences in 
the positions which they occupy in the struggle 
for existence, the conclusion would seem to be 
that the education of the sexes should be car- 
ried out along different lines. It is hard to 
realize how any one who understands the ele- 
mental truth that man and woman are by na- 
ture and function allies and not competitors 
in the struggle for existence could doubt this 
conclusion." 

''That reminds me of a good story I once 
heard,'* said Miss Ruth, "about a little bird 
called the Trochilus and its partnership with 
the crocodile. 'The Trochilus renders two 
forms of service to the crocodile on the banks 
of the Nile ; it enters his mouth and dispatches 



112 The Education of Our Girls 

the worms and leeches which trouble him, and 
when the Ichneumon, which Is an enemy to 
the crocodile, approaches, the bird flies away, 
giving vent to a peculiar cry which apprises 
his friend of the danger. The only service 
which the crocodile renders In return Is the 
shaking of his tall when he wishes to close his 
mouth, thus giving the bird warning.' " 

*'Well," said Mr. O'Brien, "the coeduca- 
tion — or rather the cooperation — Herodotus 
illustrates in this story has at least this in its 
favor, that It terminates in an indissoluble 
union ; and, all present Indications to the con- 
trary, there does seem to be something in the 
hidden depths of woman's nature that is not 
particularly averse to such combinations." 

"Oh, of course," said Miss Geddes, "the 
women of our day should devoutly accept 
Emile as their gospel. I marked a passage 
this afternoon which should be a wellspring 
of consolation to us. Let me read It for you. 
*0n the good constitution of mothers depends 
that of children; on the care of woman de- 
pends the first education of men; on woman 



Man and Woman Allies 1 1 3 

depend again their manners, their passions, 
their tastes, their pleasures, and even their 
happiness. Thus all the education of women 
ought to be relative to men. To please them, 
to be useful to them, to make themselves loved 
and honored by them, to bring them up when 
young, to care for them when grown, to coun- 
sel and console them, to render their life 
agreeable and sweet — these are the duties of 
women In every age, and what they ought to 
learn from their childhood. So long as we 
do not recognize this principle, we shall miss 
the end, and all the precepts we give them 
will be of no service either for their happiness 



or ours.' " 



"Is that Idea so far wrong?" asked Dr. 
Studevan. "You know the Gospel tells us 
that we should love our enemies and do good 
to those who hate us and pray for those who 
persecute and calumniate us; and then, the 
likeness of his Maker Is brought out in man's 
heart just In proportion as he learns to act 
from unselfish motives. In 'the ape and tiger' 
world and In the world of Trenzled Finance' 



1 1 4 The Education of Our Girls 

self-interest rules supreme, but in the kingdom 
of God man finds the secret of happiness in 
the service of others. Now, woman being the 
divinest creature on earth, we are prepared 
to find her ready to immolate herself in every 
way and on all occasions. She should be grate- 
ful to man for his generosity in supplying her 
with abundant opportunities for the devel- 
opment of the divine impulses of her na- 
ture." 

^'Isn't it about time, Doctor," said Miss 
Ruth, ''that woman gave man an opportunity 
to immolate himself on the altar of sacrifice, 
and thus to render himself worthy to dwell on 
the same plane with her? She has had 
a monopoly in this direction long enough. 
But all this does not seem to have much to do 
with coeducation. This is a practical age. 
The experiment in coeducation is being made 
and should we not rest the verdict on re- 
sults?" 

"Yes, I suppose we should," said Dr. Stu- 
devan, "but it is not the first time in the history 
of education that the experiment has been 



Man and Woman Allies 115 

tried. Plato was an ardent advocate of co- 
education and he, too, reenforced his argu- 
ment by appeals to experience. Have you a 
copy of Plato, Mr. O'Brien ?'' 

"Yes. Which volume do you want?" 
*'The one containing the 'Laws.' — ^Thank 
you. — Here Is the passage I have In mind : 

" 'My law would apply to females as well 
as to males; they shall both go through the 
same exercises. I assert without fear of con- 
tradiction that gymnastic and horsemanship 
are as suitable to women as to men. Of the 
truth of this I am persuaded from ancient tra- 
dition, and at the present day there are said 
to be myriads of women In the neighborhood 
of the Black Sea, called Sauromatldes, who 
not only ride on horseback like men, but have 
enjoined upon them the use of bows and other 
weapons equally with men. And I further 
affirm, that If these things are possible, noth- 
ing can be more absurd than the practice 
which prevails In our own country of men and 
women not following the same pursuits with 
all their strength and with one mind, and thus 



1 1 6 The Education of Our Girls 

the state, instead of being a whole, is reduced 
to a half, and yet has the same imposts to pay 
and the same toils to undergo; and what can 
be a greater mistake for any legislator to 
make ? . . . I should wish to say, Cleinias, 
as I said before, that if the possibility of these 
things were not sufficiently proven in fact, 
then there might be an objection to the argu- 
ment, but the fact being as I have said, he who 
rejects the law must find some other ground of 
objection; and, failing this, our exhortation 
would hold good, nor will any one deny that 
women ought to share as far as possible in 
education and in other ways with men, for 
consider; — if women do not share in their 
whole life with men, then they must have 
some other order of life. And what arrange- 
ment of life to be found anywhere is prefer- 
able to this community which we are now as- 
signing to them. Shall we prefer that which 
is adopted by the Thracians and many other 
races who use their women to till the ground 
and to be shepherds of their herds and flocks, 
and to minister to them like slaves?' " 



Man and Woman Allies 117 

"I never before realized,'* said Miss Ruth, 
"what an important part the Thracians took 
in the development of western civilization." 

"Say, rather, in shaping Dr. Studevan's 
ideals of education," said Mr. O'Brien. 

"On the contrary," said Dr. Studevan, "I 
want man to mind his own business and to 
tend his fields and flocks himself, leaving to 
woman occupations more suited to her nature. 
My ideal of education is more nearly the 
legitimate descendant of those held by the 
Athenians and the Lacedaemonians, and which 
Plato quotes with apparent disapproval. 
Here is the passage: 

" *0r shall we do as the people in our part 
of the world do? getting together, as the 
phrase is, all our goods and chattels into one 
dwelling — these we entrust to our women, 
who are the stewards of them; and who pre- 
side over the shuttles and the whole art of 
spinning. Or shall we take a middle course, as 
in Lacedaemon, Megillus, letting the girls 
share in gymnastic and music, while the 
grown-up women, no longer employed in spin- 



1 1 8 The Education of Our Girls 

ning wool, are actively engaged In weaving 
the web of life, which will be no cheap or 
mean employment, and In the duty of serving 
and taking care of the household and bringing 
up children, In which they will observe a sort 
of mean, not participating In the tolls of war; 
and If there were any necessity that they 
should fight for their city and families, unlike 
the Amazons, they would be unable to take 
part in archery or any other skilled use of 
missiles, nor could they, after the example of 
the goddess, carry shield or spear, or stand 
up nobly for their country when it was being 
destroyed, and strike terror into their enemies, 
if only because they were seen In regular or- 
der? Living as they do, they would never 
dare at all to imitate the Sauromatides, whose 
women, when compared with ordinary women, 
would appear to be like men. Let him who 
will praise your legislators, but I must say 
what I think. The legislator ought to be 
whole and perfect, and not half a man only; 
he ought not to let the female sex live softly 
and waste money and have no order of life, 



Man and Woman Allies 1 1 9 

while he takes the utmost care of the male sex, 
and leaves half of life only blessed with hap- 
piness, when he might have made the whole 
state happy.* " 

''The women of to-day," said Mr. Eaton, 
''remind one of the boy who paid a penny for 
a piece of pie, and after the pie was disposed 
of, came back crying for his penny. If they 
want coeducation and suffrage they should go 
all the way and take a hand in herding the 
flocks and in digging the sewers, and they 
should realize how it feels to become food for 
powder." 

"Your inference is hardly fair," said Pro- 
fessor Shannon. "An education and an ap- 
prenticeship to a trade are two quite different 
things, and there is really no one in our midst 
to-day, not even the most extreme advocate of 
woman's rights, who would want women to 
become locomotive engineers and miners, or 
who would have them seek employment in 
smelters or rolling mills. Besides, the ques- 
tion of coeducation versus segregation is con- 
cerned only with secondary and higher edu- 



I20 The Education of Our Girls 

cation, whose end is fullness of life and culture 
rather than immediate preparation for those 
occupations that demand physical strength 
and powers of endurance. Plato was speaking 
of primitive times and primitive conditions; 
life has grown far too complex at present to 
permit of the realization of his ideals in all 
their details. All that he should be held re- 
sponsible for is his main thought and that is 
clearly in favor of coeducation." 

"Are you quite sure,'' said Dr. Studevan, 
*'that Plato is not here treating us to some of 
his delicious sarcasm? Or is it to be supposed 
that he was so wanting in appreciation of the 
Athens of Pericles that he would seriously 
hold up the Sauromatides and the Amazons as 
models to be copied by the women of Greece? 
I wonder if it has become the fashion among 
sociologists to refer to the Athens of Pericles 
and Plato as ^primitive.' Poor Plato, had he 
lived fifty years later his distinguished pupil 
would undoubtedly have acquainted him with 
some of the fundamental concepts of life 
which would have saved him from falling into 



Man and Woman Allies 1 2 i 

such grievous error on the subject of coedu- 
cation. 

*'But it is really strange, living in the home 
of Phidias and feasting his eyes daily on the 
marvels that came from the chisel of Prax- 
iteles, that Plato could have so completely 
missed the meaning of symmetry as not to 
know that man and woman being symmetrical 
parts of one whole cannot be substituted one 
for the other. Of course Plato is not to be 
blamed for his failure to grasp the fundamen- 
tal life principle that all progress is dependent 
upon progressive differentiation of structure 
and specialization of function. If this great 
central truth of modern biology had gleamed 
ever so faintly on the horizon of Greek 
thought, Plato would never have lent himself 
to the Sauromatldes and the Amazons in their 
struggles to obliterate the lines of difference 
along which nature seeks to develop the sexes." 

"Would it be troubling you too much, 
Doctor," said Mr. Eaton, "to translate all 
that into plain English?" 

"Why, how cruel of you, Mr. Eaton," said 



122 The Education of Our Girls 

Miss Geddes, "to ask the Doctor to come out 
of the mists of biological phrases in which he 
so loves to dwell, and in which he is seen to 
such advantage this evening against the irides- 
cent background of Greek culture." 

"On the contrary, my dear Miss Geddes, it 
always gives me a thrill of genuine pleasure to 
expose to your discerning eye the innermost 
core of my thoughts dressed in the most trans- 
parent language at my command. The two 
thoughts which Plato would seem to have 
missed and which are among the truths most 
familiar to all students of nature are these: 
first, symmetrical parts of a body are related 
to each other in the same way that an object 
is related to its mirrored reflection ; there is the 
closest resemblance between them in one way 
and yet they are irreconcilably different. I 
am frequently made aware of this truth when, 
in my hurry in the morning, I get my right 
foot into my left shoe, and still I have always 
believed that my feet were mates. Now, man 
and woman are related to each other in their 
conscious life in somewhat the same way. It 



Man and Woman Allies 123 

requires two to round out and complete hu- 
man consciousness. 

'Tlato seems to have been moved by purely 
utilitarian motives, as if he were wont to fre- 
quent 'Dollardom' instead of the Acropolis. 
He was evidently anxious to keep down the 
taxes while adding to the number of warriors, 
but if I were a woman I would never forgive 
him for hinting that if women were seen in 
order they 'would strike terror into their ene- 
mies.' The poor fellow must have been car- 
rying in his memory a vivid picture of Xan- 
tippe in some of her unlovely moods. 

"The second thought that seems to have 
offended by its biological mist or its Greek 
iridescence has been explained in so many 
ways that it really has come to be a common- 
place. But it might be illustrated in this way : 
the integument of an earthworm serves both 
as a protection against foreign substances and 
as an organ of respiration. Now, the tougher 
it is, the better it performs the first of these 
functions, and the more delicate it is, the bet- 
ter it performs the latter, and since both of 



1 24 The Education of Our Girls 

these functions must be performed by one and 
the same structure, they are both performed 
badly. The crayfish and the lobster solve this 
problem in another way. Their bodies are 
encased in hard outer coverings which give 
efficient protection. A small portion of the 
outer surface of these creatures is rendered 
exceedingly delicate and is protected under a 
fold of the carapace, where it is able to dis- 
charge efficiently the function of respiration. 
The analogy here to the function of man and 
woman in the social organism is suggestive. 
Man has become hardened and toughened and 
is thus enabled to sustain the shock of contact 
with the outer world ; while woman, protected 
in the home, has developed all the finer traits 
of culture, of delicacy, of tact and of sweet- 
ness, without which life would be poor indeed 
for all of us.'* 



CHAPTER VII 

The Social Claim 

"Dr. Studevan," said Miss Ruth, "I find it 
hard to believe that you were serious last Fri- 
day evening In quoting Plato and in citing 
the experience of two thousand five hundred 
years ago as a guide to our present educational 
efforts. Granted that the Athens of Pericles 
and Plato had attained a high degree of civili- 
zation, yet their experiments in coeducation 
can have little value to-day when viewed in 
the light of the vast difference between their 
civilization and ours. The women of to-day 
would refuse to accept the position accorded 
to woman in the Greek civilization of those 
days." 

"You are quite right," replied Dr. Stude- 
van, "we can not copy the past. The educa- 
tion that sufficed in Plato's day or even In the 
time of Rousseau would be entirely Inadequate 
to meet present conditions. But, In spite of 



126 The Education of Our Girls 

all that may be said of changed conditions and 
of the need of modern methods to cope with 
the conditions of the present, there Is a valid- 
ity In the historical argument. It Is true that 
history never quite repeats Itself, In education 
or elsewhere; nevertheless, there Is an under- 
lying stratum of sameness, and this is precisely 
the important thing when we are dealing with 
a question such as coeducation, which rests on 
the basic laws of human nature. 

"I have no desire, however, to rest the ver- 
dict exclusively on the historical evidence. I 
am quite content that this problem should be 
worked out in the present. As you have said, 
the experiment is being made on a rather large 
scale in many of our universities, and I am 
well aware that whatever may be our antece- 
dent prejudice, or whatever the past may have 
to say about the question, our course in the 
future will be determined, In large measure, 
by the results of this experiment. But it Is 
well to remember that experiment here, as 
elsewhere, does not dispense with the necessity 
for examining the theoretical side of the ques- 



The Social Claim 127 

tlon. Experiments in education, as In other 
fields of science, are fruitful only when they 
are studied in the light of principles and theo- 
ries. 

*'Now, the supreme need of the school to- 
day is adjustment to present social and eco- 
nomic conditions, but in this work of adjust- 
ment I can find no reason to believe that 
schools for women have less vitality and less 
power of adjustment than schools for men." 

''On this phase of the subject," said Profes- 
sor Shannon, "Jane Addams will be accepted 
as an unimpeachable witness. No one has 
ever questioned her singleness of purpose. 
Her work in social settlements gives her the 
right to speak with authority on the present 
social and economic conditions of women in 
our industrial centers. Her book on 'Democ- 
racy and Social Ethics' should form an inte- 
gral part of this discussion, and I make a mo- 
tion that every member of this club be required 
to read it. The book doesn't lend itself to 
quotation, but as I remember the outline of 
the chapter on Tilial Relations,' she at least 



128 The Education of Our Girls 

implies that the hope of the new social adjust- 
ment for woman is bound up with coeduca- 
tion.'* 

*'Here is the volume," said Mr. O'Brien. 
"I must confess that I have read the book 
through without gaining that impression." 

"Well, as I have said. Miss Addams does 
not take up the subject for explicit treatment, 
but the implication is clear enough. For In- 
stance, on page 83 she says : 'Modern educa- 
tion recognizes woman quite apart from 
family or society claims, and gives her the 
training which for many years has been 
deemed successful for highly developing a 
man's individuality and freeing his powers for 
independent action.' She Is evidently here 
thinking of universities and coeducational in- 
stitutions." 

''Professor Shannon, won't you please con- 
tinue that quotation?" asked Dr. Studevan. 
"As I remember the argument. Miss Addams 
seems to be conscious In a dim way of the 
failure of coeducation." 

"No, it is not that," replied the Professor; 



The Social Claim i 29 

''she simply emphasizes the distress of woman 
in trying to adjust this newly awakened life 
to the survival of rigid social institutions. But 
here is the passage: 'Perplexities often occur 
when the daughter returns from college and 
finds that this recognition has been but par- 
tially accomplished. When she has attempted 
to act upon the assumption of its accomplish- 
ment she finds herself jarring upon Ideals 
which are so entwined with filial piety, so 
rooted in the tenderest affections of which the 
human heart is capable, that both daughter and 
parents are shocked and startled when they dis- 
cover what Is happening, and they scarcely 
venture to analyze the situation. The Ideal for 
the education of woman has changed under the 
pressure of a new claim. The family has re- 
sponded to the extent of granting the educa- 
tion, but they are jealous of the new claim 
and assert the family claim as over against it. 
" 'The modern woman finds herself edu- 
cated to recognize a stress of social obligation 
which her family did not In the least anticipate 
when they sent her to college. She finds her- 



130 The Education of Our Girls 

self, In addition, under an Impulse to act her 
part as a citizen of the world. She accepts 
her family Inheritance with loyalty and affec- 
tion, but she has entered Into a wider Inheri- 
tance as well, which, for lack of a better phrase, 
we will call the social claim. This claim has 
been recognized for four years In her training, 
but after her return from college the family 
claim Is again exclusively and strenuously as- 
serted. The situation has all the discomfort 
of transition and compromise.' 

"Will any one deny that the freeing of 
woman from the narrow confines of home and 
the bringing Into her consciousness of the so- 
cial claim has been a distinct advance? Or 
will any one deny that this advance has been 
brought about by woman's attendance at co- 
educational Institutions?" 

"Well," said Dr. Studevan, "I never like 
to play the role of the denier; but I feel con- 
strained to put In a distinct denial to this latter 
claim and just as distinct a denial to the Impli- 
cations of the former claim. Both of these 
claims are valid and both have been recog- 



The Social Claim 131 

nized as such from the beginning of Christian 
civilization. To coeducational institutions be- 
longs the credit of confusing them, and on 
these institutions rests the responsibility for 
the consequent discomfort. 

"St. Paul clearly announced different voca- 
tions for different members of the 'kingdom' 
when he said : 'To one, Indeed, by the spirit, 
is given the word of wisdom; to another, the 
word of knowledge, according to the same 
spirit; to another, faith In the same spirit; to 
another, the grace of healing In one spirit; to 
another, the working of miracles; to another, 
prophecy; to another, the discerning of spirits; 
to another, divers kinds of tongues; to 
another, the interpretation of speeches. But 
all these things one and the same spirit 
worketh, dividing to every one according as 
he will.' 

'The Church demands of her children loy- 
alty to the spirit of their vocation. Those 
who are called to the duties of home life will 
find their happiness In the faithful discharge 
of those duties, and those who feel the pres- 



132 The Education of Our Girls 

sure of the social claim are urged to follow the 
call with no less loyalty and devotion ; and all 
are warned that 'any kingdom divided against 
itself shall fall.' 

"One would Imagine from listening to the 
passage from Miss Addams which you have 
just read that woman's recognition of the so- 
cial claim Is a recent affair. How then, may 
I ask, will you account for the sisterhoods In 
the Catholic Church? Will you let me have 
the book for a moment? — I find this passage 
on page 77. 'Our democracy Is making In- 
roads upon the family, the oldest of human 
institutions, and a claim Is being advanced 
which In a certain sense Is larger than the 
family claim. The claim of the state In time 
of war has long been recognized, so that in 
its name the family has given up sons and 
husbands and even the fathers of little chil- 
dren. If we can once see the claims of society 
in any such light, if its misery and need can 
be made clear and urged as an explicit claim, 
as the state urges its claims in the time of 
danger, then for the first time the daughter 



The Social Claim 133 

who desires to minister to that need will be 
recognized as acting conscientiously.' 

"The surprising thing about this statement 
Is the Implication that the recognition Is to be 
a thing of the future, whereas, as a matter of 
fact, Its recognition by the Church In the past 
Is responsible for many of the most glorious 
pages In human history.'* 

''That is the view Dr. Shahan takes In his 
chapter on 'Woman In Early Christian Com- 
munities,' " said Miss Ruth. "Have you his 
'Beginnings of Christianity,' Mr. O'Brien? 
Let me read you this passage. After speak- 
ing of Christ's affection for women and Httle 
children, he continues on page 158: 

" 'In return the women of the Jews were 
His staunchest defenders. Some, like Salome, 
the wife of Zebedee, clung to Him from the 
beginning to the end. Others, like Joanna, 
the wife of Chusa, Herod's steward, and Su- 
sanna gave of their riches for His support, 
went about with Him and the apostles through 
cities and towns wherever the good news was 
spread by the Master. They anointed His 



134 The Education of Our Girls 

head and feet; they rejoiced more than all 
others when He rode triumphantly into Jeru- 
salem; they sorrowed at the gathering clouds 
which were soon to burst over Him; they 
stood afar off and wept as He passed on to 
His doom ; they remained when all others had 
fled; they were the first at the sepulcher, the 
first human witnesses of the resurrection, the 
first apostles of Christianity, since it was they 
who first carried the glad tidings that Jesus 
liveth forevermore, and that faith in Him and 
His promises is neither vanity nor delusion. 
" 'By a law of history the great institutions 
which most affect mankind bear always certain 
Ineffaceable earmarks of their origins — the 
aroma, as It were, of their primitive surround- 
ings and the best indices of the spirit and aims 
of their founders. The female sex, which 
plays so conspicuous a part in the life of 
Christ, is no less active in the earliest forma- 
tive period of His church. . . . When 
Peter was delivered by the angel it was to the 
house of Mary, the mother of John Marcus, 
that he went, where many were gathered to- 



The Social Claim 135 

gather and praying. After the dispersion of 
the apostles we find in the meager record of 
their history numerous facts that show how 
important a share women had in the success 
of their evangelical labors. The Lady Electa 
would seem, according to the second epistle of 
St. John, to have been the center of an im- 
portant community. 

" 'I need only to refer to the ancient and 
venerable local traditions of Rome which pre- 
serve the memory of the relations between 
St. Peter and the females of the House of 
Pudens, and those which concern the ancient 
house of Prisca on the Aventine. The Chris- 
tian world has never seen devotion superior to 
that which the earliest Christian matrons of 
Rome manifested. Their praises are in 
Clement of Rome and the Shepherd of Her- 
mas, L e., in the earliest non-canonical litera- 
ture of the Christians. But it is In the life of 
St. Paul that the Christian female apostolate 
finds Its best-known models. This time they 
are taken not from the Jewish and Syrian 
women, the Galilean neighbors of Christ, and 



136 The Education of Our Girls 

the female relatives of rough fishermen, but 
from among the elegant and refined society of 
Greek cities. . . . 

" 'He speaks of his "sincere companion" 
and the other women who have labored with 
him and Clement In the gospel, and whose 
names are written In the book of life. Among 
the most distinguished of his Athenian con- 
verts was the woman named Damarls. In the 
epistle to the Romans he gives us an Insight 
into the little circle of females whom he had 
not yet seen, but whose reputation for Chris- 
tian zeal had gone abroad, like the faith of 
the Romans, into the whole world. There is 
his helper in Christ, Prisca, the same as Pris- 
cilla, the Roman Jewess, who, with her hus- 
band, Aquila, had befriended Paul during 
their exile at Corinth, who laid down their 
necks for him, and to whom all the churches 
of the Gentiles were Indebted. There is Mary, 
"who hath labored much among you." ' 

"After continuing the enumeration of the 
women who helped St. Paul in his labors, the 
Doctor goes on to say : 



The Social Claim 137 

*' 'This Is a precious page from the earliest 
records of Christianity, and the names of 
women are Inscribed on It In Immortal lines. 
They are the mothers of the Infant churches, 
the laborers, the helpers, the ministers, the 
providers, and the consolers. They are 
ranked by the apostle for devotion and hard 
work with the bishops and priests and chief 
men of his missions. From the women of 
Rome and PhlllppI he no doubt received a 
very large share of the funds he expended on 
his missions and charities. They kept alive 
his teachings and sought out new hearers for 
the word of truth. By a delicate and subtle 
Instinct woman recognized from the beginning 
all that Christianity meant for her, and no one 
labored with more zeal and Intelligence to 
spread and explain the new teachings which 
recognized In her an equal and opened such 
Illimitable avenues to the exercise of her pe- 
culiar virtues and capabilities. In all the cul- 
ture lands bathed by the waters of the 
Mediterranean thousands of females, very 
frequently of the highest classes, enrolled 



138 The Education of Our Girls 

themselves under the banner of Jesus and pro- 
ceeded to revolutionize the ethnic inner life 
of as many thousand families.' " 

*'That is a splendid argument for coeduca- 
tion," said the Professor. *^It proves that 
Christianity itself is essentially coeducational. 
Christ did not separate women from men and 
present the Gospel to them in a form suited to 
the peculiarities of each sex. And as to the 
apostles, they not only taught mixed audiences, 
but they associated with themselves in their 
apostolic work many of the noble and earnest 
women whom they converted to Christianity.'* 

"But did not all these women in early 
Christian times, and multitudes of others in 
the centuries that followed, recognize the so- 
cial claim?" asked Dr. Studevan. "And still 
Miss Addams writes : 'If we can once see the 
claims of society in any such light, if its misery 
and need can be made clear and urged as an 
explicit claim!' 

"What misery and what need of society has 
remained to be made clear to the daughters of 
the Church ? And when have Catholic fathers 



The Social Claim 139 

and mothers failed to recognize that their 
daughters who give up home and family to 
minister to these needs are acting conscien- 
tiously? When man went out to battle to 
slay his brothers, woman followed to care for 
the wounded and to console the dying. When, 
before the days of preventive medicine, men 
fled in terror from the plague, the Sister of 
Charity remained to minister to the stricken. 
When advancing civilization banished the 
lepers to Molokal, the Sisters of St. Francis 
went Into voluntary exile that they might min- 
ister to their needs. How many a wayward 
girl has been rescued from a life of shame by 
the Sisters of the Good Shepherd! There Is 
no more familiar spectacle in our city streets 
than the Little Sisters of the Poor collecting 
alms to provide for deserted old age. And 
multitudes of the flower of Catholic woman- 
hood In every age have recognized the voice 
of God In the call to larger social duties and 
have devoted themselves to the education of 
our children and to the care of the foundling 
and the orphan. 



140 The Education of Our Girls 

"From the standpoint of social develop- 
ment, I am afraid that even the soldier who 
leaves home to fight for his country does not 
show to the best advantage when contrasted 
with these women In the sacrifices which they 
make In leaving homes, often of luxury and 
ease, to devote themselves In poverty to a life 
of unremitting toll in ministering to social 
needs. All this splendid development of 
woman and this adjustment to the social needs 
of the times came from women's schools for 
women. Coeducational Institutions have yet 
to prove their capacity for developing such 
splendid vocations to social service." 

"Doctor, are you not giving undue credit 
to women's schools?" asked Miss Ruth. "The 
vocations to social service of which you speak 
are not due to segregated schools any more 
than they are due to coeducational institu- 
tions; they are the fruits of Christianity Itself; 
they are woman's offering In token of her 
gratitude for the victories that Christianity 
has won for her. It Is a familiar theme, but 
woman's heart still overflows with gratitude 



The Social Claim 141 

for the gift of freedom that Christ brought to 
her. Dr. Shahan makes the fact very clear 
that woman's elevation to her true place beside 
man is due neither to philosophy nor to the 
generosity of man, nor to the constitutions and 
curricula of schools and colleges, but to the 
religion which Christ came Into the world to 
teach. Let me read you another page from 
Dr. Shahan's 'Beginnings of Christianity' :* 

" *A great Christian writer has said that of 
all the victories of Christianity there is none 
more salutary and necessary, and at the same 
time none more hardly and painfully won, 
than that which it has gained — gained alone 
and everywhere — though with a daily re- 
newed struggle, over the unregulated inclina- 
tions which stain and poison the fountains of 
life. Its divinity here shows Itself by a tri- 
umph which no rival philosophy, no adverse 
doctrine, has ever equaled or will ever aspire 
to equal. 

" 'The improvement of the lot of woman 
was surely the greatest social conquest of the 

*Page 167. 



142 The Education of Our Girls 

religion of Christ — greater even than the alle- 
viation and abolishment of slavery. On it, as 
on a corner stone, arose the new Christian 
society. Aristotle long since remarked that 
wherever the institutions that concern the fe- 
male sex are faulty, the state can enjoy only a 
very imperfect prosperity, for the family rela- 
tions are the great beams on which society 
reposes, and whatever tends to strengthen 
them makes in the same measure for the solid- 
ity of the social framework that rests thereon. 
This fundamental truth had become greatly 
obscured in the pre-Christian ages. With a 
few honorable and partial exceptions the con- 
dition of woman was everywhere that of a 
weak and degraded being, unequal to man, 
existing only for his pleasure and utility. 
'The Christian doctrine," says Balmes in his 
"European Civilization," "made the existing 
prejudices against woman vanish forever; it 
made her equal to man by unity of origin and 
destiny and in the participation of the heavenly 
gifts; it enrolled her in the universal brother- 
hood of man with his fellows and with Jesus 



The Social Claim 143 

Christ; It considered her as the child of God, 
the coheiress of Jesus Christ; as the compan- 
ion of man and no longer a slave and the vile 
Instrument of pleasure. Henceforth that 
philosophy which had attempted to degrade 
her was silenced; that unblushing literature 
which treated woman with so much Insolence 
found a check In the Christian precepts and a 
reprimand no less eloquent than severe In the 
dignified manner In which all the ecclesiastical 
writers, In Imitation of the Scriptures, ex- 
pressed themselves on woman." ' *' 

"I acknowledge, Miss Ruth, that I am 
fairly cornered. My enthusiasm betrayed me 
Into an untenable position. As a matter of 
fact, I am in entire agreement with you and 
Dr. Shahan. Of course woman does not owe 
her position, either social, moral or Intel- 
lectual, to any system of pedagogy or to any 
form of educational Institution as such. Her 
regeneration Is the direct result of the pure 
and noble teachings of Christ and of His 
Church. However, In the actual conditions 
which confront us there Is a connection, 



144 T'he Education of Our Girls 

whether it be accidental or not, between the 
doctrines of Christianity that elevated woman 
and the question of Coeducation versus Segre- 
gation. In such coeducational institutions as 
the universities of Minnesota, Wisconsin, 
Michigan, etc., religion is banished from the 
classroom. The spirit of Christ and the up- 
lifting influence of His teaching is not felt 
within the walls of these institutions; their 
atmosphere Is materialistic; their aim is prac- 
tical; their philosophy Is that of a material 
world that more closely resembles the philoso- 
phy of pagan Greece and Rome, which de- 
graded woman, than It does the doctrine of 
Christ, which purified and ennobled her. 

*'As the case stands, however, the only 
schools for our Catholic young women that 
continue to breathe the spirit of Christ and to 
inculcate His teachings are the convent 
schools. Unfortunately, many of our young 
women are flocking to the universities In search 
of truth. They may find the truths of math- 
ematics and of the natural sciences, but they 
breathe a poisoned atmosphere, and 'What 



The Social Claim 145 

doth It profit a man If he gain the whole world 
and lose his own soul?' " 

"Is not that an extremely narrow position 
for a university professor to take?" asked 
Miss Geddes. "What of the army of public 
school teachers, multitudes of whom have 
been trained In coeducational Institutions? 
Are they all devoid of religion and sunk In 
materialism, or is their social service less meri- 
torious because they dress as ordinary mor- 
tals? Does virtue need to be togged out In 
special trappings to be recognized?" 

"My dear Miss Geddes, It grieves me sorely 
that you should think me narrow, but If I must 
choose between the two accusations, I prefer 
to be considered narrow rather than superfi- 
cial. But in reality I am the last man In the 
world that would consciously detract from the 
merit of our public school teachers. All my 
life I have been filled with admiration for 
them and filled with Indignation against the 
meanness of a public spirit that compensates 
them so poorly for the magnificent service they 
render society. We must remember, however, 



146 The Education of Our Girls 

that coeducational institutions have not a mo- 
nopoly In the training of public school 
teachers. Many of the ablest members of 
this splendid army of women received their 
education In convents or In other schools for 
women. 

"I would gladly avoid contrasting the ser- 
vices of two bodies of women to each of which 
society owes so deep a debt of gratitude, but, 
if comparison must be made, I think we shall 
find that the social service of the Sister who 
teaches in our parish school is of a higher or- 
der than that rendered by the public school 
teacher. In the first place, a large percentage 
of public school teachers devote themselves to 
this service temporarily. Multitudes of them 
teach for a few years only and then marry and 
devote the remainder of their lives to home 
duties. Whereas, teaching is to the Sister the 
consecration of a lifetime. And however 
meager the compensation of the public school 
teacher, It is usually several times as great as 
that of the Sister. 

"Moreover, while the labor of the public 



The Social Claim 147 

school teacher Is undoubtedly severe, It does 
not begin to compare In severity with that of 
the Sister, who, in addition to her work In 
school, must devote several hours a day to the 
exercises of the religious life which are 
deemed necessary to sustain her In her exalted 
vocation. She must rise at four or five o'clock 
in the morning to attend community exercises : 
morning prayers, meditation, Mass, and 
divine office. She has accomplished a good 
day's work before she reaches the schoolroom. 
Then, after the exhausting labors of the day 
In a crowded room, she must devote several 
hours to household duties. Her Income is 
usually too scant to permit her to employ ser- 



vants." 



*'It Is Inhuman," said Mr. Eaton, *'to place 
such Intolerable burdens upon the poor Sisters. 
Why Is not the labor divided among them? 
Should not some of the Sisters devote them- 
selves exclusively to the work of teaching, 
leaving to others the household cares?" 

"There are two very good reasons militat- 
ing against such a desirable division of labor," 



148 The Education of Our Girls 

replied Dr. Studevan. "In the first place, the 
salary paid to the Sisters who teach is not suffi- 
cient to support other Sisters who would de- 
vote themselves to household cares, and there 
is frequently no other source of revenue avail- 
able; and secondly, there are not nearly 
enough Sisters to supply the demand for 
teachers." 

"I do not wish to detract in any way from 
the heroic self-sacrifice of the good Sisters," 
said the Professor, "but all this seems to be 
irrelevant to the question under consideration. 
We are concerned here, not with the sacrifice 
of the individual teacher, whether she be a 
Sister or a public school teacher, but with the 
quality and the intrinsic value of the social 
services rendered. If the public school teacher 
devotes all her power and energy to the work 
of the school, whereas the Sister, from what- 
ever cause, diverts a large share of her time 
and energy to other duties, it is evident that 
the Sister's service in the schoolroom will be 
proportionately lowered in quality — unless 
you invoke supernatural intervention to sup- 



The Social Claim 149 

ply the place of the diverted human 



energy." 



"Well, even if we admit this for the sake of 
argument," said Miss Ruth, "the remedy is 
to be found in a more generous support of the 
Sisters' efforts. It is quite evident that some- 
thing should be done in this direction in order 
that society may receive the full benefit and 
blessing of the Sisters' service. Their numbers 
should be increased and they should receive a 
more generous compensation. In this land of 
plenty it is a crime to burden the Sisters with 
household cares when there is an army of girls 
willing to do this work for very modest wages. 

"In addition to the disadvantages which 
Dr. Studevan has just pointed out, the Sisters 
are hampered in many other ways. They fre- 
quently have a much larger number of pupils 
in a room than would be permitted in the pub- 
he schools; and, where the population is 
sparse, the same teacher often has to teach 
several grades. And it not infrequently hap- 
pens that they are unable to procure the 
proper appliances; even their libraries are 



150 The Education of Our Girls 

meager, and it Is only with the greatest 
amount of sacrifice that they are enabled to 
assemble at rare intervals for institute work, 
or to secure the requisite talent to conduct the 
institute and to keep them in touch with the 
latest developments in educational methods.'^ 

"Here's a chance for you, Mr. Eaton," said 
Mr. O'Brien. "Divine Providence has been 
good to you and has multiplied beyond meas- 
ure your herds and flocks. Here's your 
chance ! Don't build libraries for an unappre- 
ciatlve public, but do something right hand- 
some for the Sisters. Establish a fund that 
will help in some way to lighten the burden of 
these public benefactors or help them to 
realize their lofty aspirations by endowing for 
them a normal institute." 

"Well, I'll think it over — but what are a 
few little fishes among so many? If you will 
help me to get together a few men of means, 
we may be able to do something that Is worth 
while." 

"Now, Mr. Eaton, that's worthy of you," 
said Dr. Studevan. "I'll take back all I said 



The Social Claim 151 

against you a few evenings ago and I will even 
withdraw my charge of materialism. All that 
was asked of the rich young man in the Gos- 
pel, you know, was that he should sell all that 
he possessed and distribute it among the poor. 
We won't ask so much of you; if you will 
just dispose of some of your superfluous 
wealth to help these struggling Sisters in their 
heroic efforts for the public welfare, instead of 
leaving it behind you to demoralize your sons, 
the prayers of a grateful people, generation 
after generation, will ascend to the throne of 
the Giver of all good gifts and draw down 
abundant blessings upon your posterity." 

"This is all very well," said Professor 
Shannon, "and I want to add my congratula- 
tions, but it has taken us away from the ques- 
tion at issue. Studevan, as usual, dodged the 
point. We are concerned with the quality of 
the social service rendered and not with the 
sacrifices made by individuals in order to ren- 
der the service. Now, it is clear that the pub- 
lic school teacher who devotes all her time and 
energy to the work of teaching should be able 



152 The Education of Our Girls 

to do it better than the Sister whose energy Is 
drawn off In large measure by other occupa- 
tions, which, however meritorious or neces- 
sary In themselves, have nothing to do with 
teaching." 

"I really had no Intention of dodging the 
point. Professor. You surely will not blame 
a man for pausing to give some slight expres- 
sion to the enthusiasm that generous deeds, 
even In their proposal, awaken In the human 
heart. But, to return to your question, I still 
maintain that the quality of the Sisters' work, 
in spite of all the drawbacks under which they 
labor, and prescinding from all the sacrifices 
that they make, Is of a higher order than the 
social service rendered by the public school 
teachers. 

*'If Miss Geddes will pardon me for re- 
turning to the biological mists, I will again 
quote the fundamental principle that all ad- 
vance of life to higher planes is conditioned 
upon a progressive differentiation of structure 
and specialization of function. We recognize 
this principle everywhere else : in industry and 



The Social Claim 153 

commerce, In the various professions and In 
the elective curricula of our colleges and uni- 
versities. In proportion as society grows In 
complexity of structure, there Is felt an In- 
creasing need of vocations to social service." 

*'What has all this to do with the ques- 
tion?" asked the Professor. *'Is not teach- 
ing In the public school a special func- 
tion quite as much as teaching In the convent 
school?" 

"If you will bear with me a minute. Pro- 
fessor, I will try to make my thought so clear 
that even you may grasp It. Man, In the 
savage state. Is concerned chiefly with himself 
and with the members of his Immediate fam- 
ily. Self-preservation here expresses Itself In 
the care of the Individual and In the propaga- 
tion of the species. 

"These are the deepest and strongest Instincts 
In human nature. As man advances In civili- 
zation, instinct, reenforced by human reason, 
causes him to extend his care and solicitude to 
the tribe or clan. But as man reaches the 
higher planes of civilized life, tribal lines tend 



154 The Education of Our Girls 

to become obliterated and patriotism mani- 
fests itself and the need of the state in time 
of danger has for him a more potent voice 
than that of either tribe or family. And thus, 
as man becomes ethical, he finds himself en- 
gaged in a conflict with the deeper and nar- 
rower instincts of his nature. Now, the high- 
est function of education is to strengthen and 
develop the ethical element in man. Let me 
read for you a brief description of this proc- 
ess from the pen of Thomas Huxley, who 
will not be accused of special pleading in be- 
half of the Church or her institutions. 

" 'For his successful progress, through the 
savage state, man has been largely indebted to 
those qualities which he shares with the ape 
and tiger; his exceptional physical organiza- 
tion; his cunning, his sociability, his curiosity, 
and his imitativeness ; his ruthless and fero- 
cious destructiveness when his anger is roused 
by opposition. But, in proportion as men have 
passed from anarchy to social organization, 
and in proportion as civilization has grown in 
worth, these deeply ingrained serviceable 



The Social Claim 155 

qualities have become defects. After the 
manner of successful persons, civilized man 
would gladly kick down the ladder by which 
he has climbed. He would be only too pleased 
to see "the ape and tiger die." But they de- 
cline to suit his convenience; and the unwel- 
come Intrusion of these boon companions of 
his hot youth Into the ranged existence of civil 
hfe adds pains and griefs, Innumerable and 
Immeasurably great, to those which the cosmic 
process necessaflly brings on the mere animal. 
In fact, cIvIHzed man brands all these ape and 
tiger promptings with the name of sins; he 
punishes many of the acts which flow from 
them as crimes and. In extreme cases, he does 
his best to put an end to the survival of 
the fittest of former days by the axe and 
rope.'* 

"The development of the ethical element 
and the production of vocations for Its culti- 
vation are, therefore, the highest achievements 
of education, and it is on this basis that we 
must make our comparison between the work 
^Collected Essays, Vol. IX, p. 51. 



156 The Education of Our Girls 

of the public school teachers and the work of 
men and women who, leaving father and 
mother, home and family, follow in the foot- 
steps of the Master and spend their lives in 
ministering to the needs of God's children." 



CHAPTER VIII 

The Social Claim Versus the Family Claim 

'Trom Dr. Studevan's argument last Friday 
evening," said Miss Geddes, "one would 
Imagine that there Is such a conflict between 
home duty and social service that the same 
Individual cannot respond to both. I suppose 
he would make our soldiers and statesmen, 
our doctors and lawyers, celibates like him- 
self." 

"Why, no. Miss Geddes, I would not will- 
ingly diminish the number of marriageable 
men, of whom there seem to be too few as the 
case stands. I was thinking only of woman 
and of her difficulty in adjusting the social 
claim to her home duties. Miss Addams of- 
fers valuable testimony on this subject. Speak- 
ing of the college graduate she says : 

" 'The daughter finds a constant and totally 
unnecessary conflict between the social and the 
family claim. In most cases the former is 



158 The Education of Our Girls 

repressed and gives way to the family claim, 
because the latter is concrete and definitely 
asserted, while the social demand is vague and 
unformulated. In such instances the girl qui- 
etly submits, but she feels wronged whenever 
she allows her mind to dwell upon the situa- 
tion. She either hides her hurt and splendid 
reserves of enthusiasm and capacity go to 
waste or her zeal and emotions are turned 
inward, and the result is an unhappy woman, 
whose heart Is consumed by vain regrets and 
desires.' 

''We all recognize the fact that woman 
fulfils certain social functions without neglect- 
ing home duties, still, it is quite evident that 
as society grows in complexity it demands 
among women vocations to a social service 
quite Incompatible with ordinary home duties. 
Even our school boards seem to recognize this 
fact by their refusal to employ married 
women. Their experience does not warrant 
them In Imposing these two burdens on the 
same woman. 

"There was a time, doubtless, when the 



Social Claim vs. Family Claim 159 

mother was quite able to take care of the edu- 
cation of her children, but that was when so- 
ciety was In its Infancy. No inconsiderable 
share of the work of education still rests upon 
the mother, but this Is quite apart from the 
school. To-day the duties of either home or 
school are quite sufficient to absorb the energy 
of any one woman." 

"Again I must protest," said the Professor, 
"that you are hitting wide of the mark and 
and that you have not cleared up the point 
that you promised to make so plain. Public 
school teachers are not married women, and, 
from your own admission, they devote all 
their time and energy to the work of teach- 
ing; whereas, the Sisters, from your own ad- 
mission also, are compelled to divert a large 
share of their energy into other channels. The 
advantage, therefore, is decidedly on the side 
of the public school teachers." 

"Ah, Professor, 'still harping on my 
daughter!' There are many phases of the sub- 
ject yet to be considered and one can not say 
everything at once. But it Is, perhaps, as 



i6o The Education of Our Girls 

well to remind you right here that the disad- 
vantages are not all on the side of the Sisters. 
They act under the guidance of the Church, 
who, in her divine wisdom, has always recog- 
nized the differentiation of structure and the 
specialization of function in all phases of so- 
cial development. 

''The Sisters may, therefore, consistently 
develop to the fullest extent the tendency to 
social service wherever they find it. Where 
it becomes the dominant tone in character, the 
young woman is not sent back to home life to 
eat out her heart in vain regrets. A career is 
open to her in any one of the innumerable 
Sisterhoods, where she may respond to the so- 
cial claim with the devotion of her life. And 
where this vocation does not manifest itself, 
the Sisters prepare the girl for the worthy dis- 
charge of home duties. The failure to recog- 
nize vocations to social service and the at- 
tempt to coerce all women into the narrower 
circle of home duties is responsible in no small 
measure for that discontent which in too many 
cases manifests itself in the divorce court. 



Social Claim vs. Family Claim 1 6 1 

*'We must not forget that religion Is the 
great force that has lifted man out of his sel- 
fishness and savagery. The voice of the Mas- 
ter who bade His followers to return the 
sword Into its scabbard and to love one 
another Irrespective of tribe or tongue or 
creed has been the most potent factor that has 
ever entered Into the world for the develop- 
ment of the ethical element In man. 

"The public school teacher Is not permitted 
to teach rehglon or to utilize the resources 
which it offers for the development of the 
characters of the children committed to her 
care; whereas religion is the mainstay of the 
Sister. 

"Moreover, the selfish tendencies in man are 
deeply ingrained qualities which he has inher- 
ited through countless generations; whereas 
the ethical element, the tendency to place the 
public good above all private gain, is largely 
the result of education. Now, if we remem- 
ber what an all-Important role imitation plays 
in the development of the mind and heart of 
the child, it will be evident that the mere 



1 62 The Education of Our Girls 

presence in the schoolroom of a teacher whose 
very dress is the outward symbol of a life 
consecrated to the public service is of more 
value for the development of the ethical na- 
ture of the child than any effort along the line 
of verbal instruction. 

"Besides, it is quite evident that a woman 
who thus consecrates herself to the public ser- 
vice is better qualified to foster and develop 
the vocation to social duty in the children 
committed to her care than a woman who is 
looking forward to home duties and family 
ties." 

"That is a rather startling view of educa- 
tion," said Miss Geddes. "It is, however, a 
test of efficiency in teaching that is not likely 
to find acceptance in these practical days. Im- 
agine measuring the relative standing of a 
school by the number of girls which it sends 
into the convent or by the number of boys 
which it sends into the priesthood I" 

"I am afraid. Miss Geddes, that you have 
missed my thought. But, after all, would it 
be such a poor test of the relative efficiency of 



Social Claim vs. Family Claim 163 

schools? 'By their fruits ye shall know them.' 
The vocation to social service, however, which 
I had in mind is not necessarily connected with 
either sisterhood or priesthood. It is simply 
the recognition of the social claim which 
should be more or less articulate in the life of 
every man and woman. It is this civic virtue, 
this placing of the public good above all pri- 
vate gain, this sense of human fellowship, 
this readiness to respond to the cry of suffer- 
ing, that I have been holding up as the su- 
preme test of education. And the question 
under immediate consideration is the relative 
equipment of sisters and of public school 
teachers for the development of this quality 
in the characters of the children committed to 
their care. 

"You remember how Savonarola developed 
this quality In Romola. I would like to read 
for you the entire chapter on The Arresting 
Voice, but instead let me read two brief pas- 
sages which have a direct bearing on the sub- 
ject in hand : 

" 'She had started up with defiant words 



164 The Education of Our Girls 

ready to burst from her lips, but they fell back 
again without utterance. She had met Fra 
Girolamo's calm glance, and the impression 
from it was so new to her that her anger sank 
ashamed as something irrelevant. . . . 

" 'She stood silent, looking at him. And 
he spoke again. 

" ' "You assert your freedom proudly, my 
daughter. But who is so base as the debtor 
that thinks himself free?" 

" 'There was a sting in those words, and 
Romola's countenance changed as if a subtle 
pale flash had gone over it. 

" ' "And you are flying from your debts: 
The debt of a Florentine woman; the debt of 
a wife. You are turning your back on the lot 
that has been appointed for you — you are 
going to choose another. But can man or 
woman choose duties? No more than they 
can choose their birthplace or their father and 
mother. My daughter, you are fleeing from 
the presence of God into the wilderness. . . ." 

" 'The source of the impression his glance 
produced on Romola was the sense it con- 



Social Claim vs. Family Claim 165 

veyed to her of interest In her and care for her 
apart from any personal feeling. It was the 
first time she had encountered a gaze In which 
simple human fellowship expressed Itself as a 
strongly felt bond. Such a glance Is half the 
vocation of the priest or spiritual guide of 
men, and Romola felt it impossible again to 
question his authority to speak to her.' 

''This Is the qualification of the teacher as 
well as of the priest. The source of Savona- 
rola's power over his followers Is to be found 
in the consecration of his life to the public ser- 
vice. Such lives always exert a powerful in- 
fluence in lifting to a higher ethical plane those 
with whom they come in contact. In this it is 
plain that the religious teacher has a great 
advantage over those who devote themselves 
temporarily to the work of teaching. The 
unconscious effect produced on the children by 
the religious vocation of the teacher Is ren- 
dered articulate on the lips of Savonarola In 
this passage : 

" ' ''And do you owe no tie but that of a 
child to her father in the flesh ? Your life has 



1 66 The Education of Our Girls 

been spent in blindness, my daughter. You 
have lived with those who sit on a hill aloof, 
and look down on the life of their fellow-men. 
I know their vain discourse. It is of what has 
been in the times which they fill with their 
own fancied wisdom, while they scorn God^s 
work in the present. And doubtless you were 
taught how there were pagan women who felt 
what it was to live for the Republic ; and you 
have never felt that you, a Florentine woman, 
should live for Florence. If your own people 
are wearing a yoke, will you slip from under 
it, instead of struggling with them to lighten 
it? There is hunger and misery in our streets, 
and you say, 'I care not; I have my own sor- 
rows; I will go away, if peradventure I can 
ease them.' The servants of God are strug- 
gling after a law of justice, peace, and charity, 
that the hundred thousand citizens among 
whom you were born may be governed right- 
eously; but you think no more of this than if 
you were a bird that might spread its wings 
and fly whither it will in search of food to its 
liking. And yet you have scorned the teach- 



Social Claim vs. Family Claim 167 

Ings of the Church, my daughter. As if you, 
a wilful wanderer, following your own blind 
choice, were not below the humblest Floren- 
tine woman who stretches forth her hands 
with her own people, and craves a blessing for 
them, and feels a close sisterhood with the 
neighbor who lives beside her and is not of her 
own blood." ' " 

''Granted," said Professor Shannon, "that 
what Savonarola is here pleading for is the 
quality that should be developed in all our 
children; but is it not coeducational institu- 
tions that are awakening in our young women 
the consciousness of this social claim? Miss 
Addams brought this out very clearly when 
she said: 'The modern woman finds herself 
educated to recognize a stress of social obliga- 
tions which her family did not in the least an- 
ticipate when they sent her to college. She 
finds herself, in addition, under the impulse to 
act her part as a citizen of the world.* " 

"Coeducational institutions haven't a mo- 
nopoly of the development in the minds of 
women of this impulse to a larger life," said 



1 68 The Education of Our Girls 

Mr. O'Brien. ^'Women's colleges and the 
academies and colleges conducted by our sis- 
terhoods in all parts of the country have had 
their full share in this awakening. This theme 
was beautifully developed by Dr. Shahan in 
an address delivered in Trinity College a few 
years ago at the dedication of the O'Connor 
art gallery. I found the address the other 
day, among other essays, in The House of 
God'; let me read you this passage from it 
(page 47): 

*' The demand for women of solid Chris- 
tian virtue and well-cultivated minds is increas- 
ing. There is no city in the land where they 
are not prized and where a dozen tasks do not 
await each one. The immense democracy of 
opportunity solicits our American women on 
all sides, and her naturally independent spirit 
urges her to profit to the utmost by every open- 
ing that is made for her. It is in the United 
States that genuine superior schools for 
women first arose; they are still growing all 
over this land, often richly endowed by other 
women, and all of them helping to uplift and 



Social Claim vs. Family Claim 169 

Illustrate their sex. Immemorial prejudice 
against the intellectual Improvement of 
woman Is disappearing, and barriers are fall- 
ing that seemed as Inviolable as the laws of 
the Medes and the Persians. Errors and fail- 
ures there have been, but the whole movement 
is sane, admirable, eminently Christian, and 
rich with future promise. Anyhow, the lords 
of creation have not always managed their 
own higher education so blamelessly that they 
can reproach their sisters with their Initial 
stumblings and wanderings. Their cause is 
just, and no society In the world has so large 
an Interest in Its success, in the growth of a 
great multitude of superior women, as our 
American society. Virtue and Intelligence are 
Indispensable props of every democracy, and 
they are never imported. They grow In the 
family, or they grow not at all. It is the 
women of the family, the wife, the mother, the 
sister, who educate the average American citi- 
zen. He is what they make him or fail to 
make him. Hence, the most Imperative need of 
our society is a womankind that shall not only 



170 The Education of Our Girls 

feel its responsibility, but shall also dispose 
of sufficient knowledge to handle well its op- 
portunities of every day and every hour; that 
shall be the equal of the husband and brother, 
the superior guide of growing youth, an ele- 
ment of good counsel, civic wisdom, and moral 
strength in the community. One weakness of 
modern society is not the learning, but the Ig- 
norance of woman, that condemns her too 
often to look on helplessly at a frittering and 
degradation of life, of which she is again the 
first victim. Hence, if Catholicism is to be 
a social force in the future of our American 
humanity, It must look to the education of its 
women with all the practical earnestness and 
enlightened zeal that it manifests for the edu- 
cation of its men; nay, with more, for man be- 
comes an educator only occasionally, while 
education is the habitual calling of all women; 
they are its prophetesses and Its priestesses, 
conversant with all Its mysteries, and endowed 
by God with a hundred secret affections, in- 
clinations and tastes In this sense that render 
the work easy and successful.' 



Social Claim vs. Family Claim 171 

"Our colleges and universities have not 
confined their efforts in the past, and are not 
confining them in the present, to the mere 
teaching of the classics and the sciences; their 
highest function has always been the develop- 
ment of the social element in their pupils. 
They send forth from their doors soldiers to 
defend the country in time of danger and 
statesmen to guide the nation in the pursuit of 
peace and public-spirited men everywhere who 
interest themselves in the welfare of their fel- 
low-citizens. 

"It is quite natural, therefore, that our 
young women, on entering these institutions 
of learning, should feel the pulse of this larger 
life and find the call to social service impera- 
tive; but the point to be considered is this: 
are the colleges which were developed to 
minister to man's needs equipped to guide the 
awakening social impulses of our young 
women into the proper channels? 

"Many thoughtful men think that women's 
colleges must solve this problem. There 
seems to be no good reason why they should 



172 The Education of Our Girls 

not give the young women the practical and 
cultural elements of a collegiate education and 
the impulse to a larger life which have here- 
tofore been characteristic of men*s colleges 
and coeducational institutions. Moreover, 
there is every reason to hope that these de- 
sirable features of our existing universities 
and men's colleges will be Incorporated In 
women's colleges with other elements that are 
essential to the peculiar needs of woman and 
that will fit her more effectively for the large 
work in the social world which she Is now 
called upon to perform. 

'*It Is doubtful whether the universities and 
coeducational institutions can deal safely or 
effectively with the development of woman's 
mind and heart. As Dr. Shahan has so clearly 
shown, woman reached her present elevation 
through the uplifting power of Christian 
teaching and Christian ideals, and she cannot 
now eliminate from her development this 
phase, even if we could Imagine her dwelling 
on some higher plane of intellectual and moral 
life than that to which Christianity has lifted 



Social Claim vs. Family Claim 173 

her. The law so often invoked by embryolo- 
glsts here holds as rigidly as it does in all other 
fields of organic and mental development: 
ontogeny is a recapitulation of phylogeny. It 
is, therefore, doubtful whether any institution 
that ignores religion and dispenses with its up- 
lifting influences can ever solve woman's 
problems or guide her development success- 
fully.'' 

"Miss Addams' description of the young 
college woman in the role of a charity visitor 
emphasizes this doubt," said Miss Ruth. 
"The college seems to have awakened in her 
a keen consciousness of the social claim, but 
it has failed to direct this awakened energy 
into effective channels of social service. The 
chapter on Charitable Effort, which to me is 
the most interesting one in the book, is a vivid 
picture of the utter failure of the charity vis- 
itor to understand the people whom she would 
serve, and the endless misunderstanding of her 
motives by these people which lead to conse- 
quences that are neither foreseen nor desirable. 

"Her failure to elevate their ethical stan- 



174 The Education of Our Girls 

dard Is due to her Inability to comprehend It, 
and when she undertakes to substitute her own 
standard for theirs, 'the perplexity and clash- 
ing of different standards, with the consequent 
misunderstandings, are not so bad as the moral 
deterioration which Is almost sure to follow.' 
It usually takes the charity visitor some time 
to discover the impossibility of substituting a 
higher ethical standard for a lower one with- 
out similarity of experience." 

"She would not be thus perplexed," said 
Dr. Studevan, ''had the school in which she 
was trained been animated by the wisdom of 
the Church. The daintily clad charitable 
visitor, before she sprouted her wings, would 
have learned that Christ did not send angels 
to convert the world. 'Every high priest, 
taken from among men. Is ordained for men 
In the things that appertain to God.' The 
Church has always adjusted herself to the 
people whom she would lift up and save. She 
recruits her priesthood and her sisterhoods 
from all walks of life and thus becomes all 
things to all men In order to save all." 



Social Claim vs. Family Claim 175 

"Although the young visitor may fall at 
times to accomplish the good that she desires," 
said Professor Shannon, "we must not on that 
account overlook the good work that Is being 
done by the Associated Charities and the St. 
Vincent de Paul societies.'* 

"Miss Addams Is evidently not much better 
satisfied with the organized efforts of these 
people than she Is with Individual strivings," 
said Miss Ruth. "I find this passage on page 
25: 

" 'Even those of us who feel most sorely the 
need of more order In altruistic effort and see 
the end to be desired find something distaste- 
ful in the juxtaposition of the words "organ- 
ized" and "charity." We say in defense that 
we are striving to turn this emotion into a 
motive, that pity is capricious, and not to be 
depended upon; that we mean to give it the 
dignity of conscious duty. But at bottom we 
distrust a little a scheme which substitutes a 
theory of social conduct for the natural 
promptings of the heart, even although we 
appreciate the complexity of the situation.' " 



176 The Education of Our Girls 

*'That Is a statement of the problem," said 
Dr. Studevan, "which the Church has solved 
in the organization of her clergy and in the 
formation of her religious orders. Has she 
not here again and again lifted up capricious 
pity into permanent charity and transfigured 
the emotion of love into the conscious duty of 
a lifetime? 

"Miss Addams seems at times to be on the 
point of recognizing this fact as when she says, 
in speaking of the experience of the charity 
visitors : 

" 'It Induces an occasional charity visitor to 
live in a tenement house as simply as the other 
tenants do. It drives others to give up visit- 
ing the poor altogether, because, they claim, 
it is quite impossible unless the individual be- 
comes a member of a sisterhood, which re- 
quires, as some of the Roman Catholic sister- 
hoods do, that the member first take the vows 
of obedience and poverty, so that she can have 
nothing to give save as it is first given to her, 
and thus she Is not harassed by a constant at- 
tempt at adjustment.' 



Social Claim vs. Family Claim 177 

"It is somewhat surprising that a woman of 
Miss Addams' penetration should have failed 
to see that the sisterhoods of the Catholic 
Church contain the solution of her problem." 

"Why did you stop reading there?" asked 
Miss Geddes; "the really significant part of 
the chapter is that which follows." 

"I was animated by no more deeply laid 
scheme, Miss Geddes, than the fear of trying 
your patience too severely. But here is the 
rest of the passage : 

" 'Both the tenement-house resident and the 
Sister assume to have put themselves upon the 
industrial level of their neighbors, although 
they have left out the most awful element of 
poverty, that of imminent fear of starvation 
and a neglected old age.' " 

"So that the adjustment which is secured by 
the convent," said Miss Geddes, "is, after all, 
a mere sham! It's another case of 'Hamlet' 
without the Prince of Denmark. They wear 
the outward semblance of poverty without be- 
ing poor in reality." 

"Your catalog of shams would prove an 



178 The Education of Our Girls 

interesting one," replied Dr. Studevan. "I no- 
tice that in spite of the danger of being called 
hard names by over-zealous philanthropists 
the life-saving crew seldom feel it necessary to 
put themselves in all respects in the condition 
of the shipwrecked in order to be of service 
to them. The saint in his lowliness mingles 
with sinners and outcasts without leaving his 
sanctity behind him. When God became man 
to lift up fallen human nature He brought His 
divinity with Him; and the Sisters, following 
in His footsteps, labor Incessantly to save and 
uplift the wreckage of human society without 
making themselves as one of the victims of 
human vice and cruelty." 

"Charities and corrections furnish a very 
interesting theme for discussion," said the Pro- 
fessor, "and I hope we shall find time for it 
on some other evening, but I don't want to let 
Studevan escape from the tight corner in 
which we have him until he acknowledges like 
a man that he has been In the wrong. We 
have all been interested In the work of Miss 
Addams, Miss Scudder, Miss Haley and 



Social Claim vs. Family Claim 179 

other women of their kind who are not Sisters. 
The awakening and developing of the social 
Impulses In these women have been the work 
of coeducational Institutions, and It Is evident, 
therefore, that It Is to these Institutions we 
should look for aid in adjusting woman to her 
new social and economic environments." 

^Whether or not It be due to the lateness 
of the hour," said Dr. Studevan, *'I find it 
rather hard to follow the logic of the Profes- 
sor's argument. Personally, I have always 
considered it time to drop a discussion when 
the participants became more interested in 
personal triumphs than In the cause of truth. 
I wonder if this haste on the part of the Pro- 
fessor to put me In a corner is In any way re- 
sponsible for his failure to remember that 
Miss Addams received her education In a 
woman's college in Rockford, 111., that Miss 
Scudder is a product of Smith, and that Miss 
Haley was educated by the Sisters of the Holy 
Cross? Or is it possible that he Is not aware 
that much of the best work along these lines 
outside the convent as well as within its walls 



i8o The Education of Our Girls 

Is done by women who were trained by the 
Sisters or In women's schools and colleges con- 
ducted by women of the world?" 

^'Coeducational Institutions have not had 
time to have a large representation In work of 
this kind," said MissGeddes, "but wait for the 
future and you shall see what they will accom- 
plish I Anyhow, neither Miss Addams nor 
Miss Scudder Is the product of a convent 
school nor did It take a religious vocation to 
develop In them a response to the social 
claim." 

"All of which I most willingly grant," said 
Dr. Studevan. "I yield to none In my admi- 
ration for the work of such women as Miss 
Addams and Miss Scudder. Nevertheless, I 
cannot help believing that if Miss Addams 
were a Catholic and that if she had received 
her training in a convent school she would 
now be at the head of some great sisterhood 
with a thousand Sisters sharing her enthusi- 
asm and working under her direction. 

"Nor would I have any one think me unap- 
preclative of the splendid work for the higher 



Social Claim vs. Family Claim 181 

education of women which is being done by 
many of the existing women^s colleges outside 
the Church. Still I can not help comparing 
results. I can not escape the conviction that 
all the enduring work of society must flow in 
the channels of regular organization. Indi- 
vidual effort however brilliant is likely to be 
local and short-lived. If it spreads over a 
large area, unless it is organized, it soon disin- 
tegrates into a thousand conflicting attempts 
which often retard progress. 

"Nowhere does the Church's genius for or- 
ganization show to better advantage than in 
her dealings with women. She first separates 
those who by nature and inclination are pe- 
culiarly adapted to social service from those 
who are constitutionally and temperamentally 
fitted to become wives and mothers ; and then 
from among those who are eager to devote 
themselves to the public service, she selects 
one band who devote themselves exclusively 
to the care of neglected old age, and another 
to the care of helpless Infancy; one band to the 
* care of the sick and the wounded in body, and 



1 82 The Education of Our Girls 

another to the rescue and preservation of those 
who are weak morally. Some sisterhoods de- 
vote themselves chiefly to the formation of 
ideal wives and mothers among the children 
of the wealthy, while others undertake to care 
for the orphan and to educate the children of 
the poor. 

"All this work goes on quietly, without 
noise or bustle, but there Is a consciousness of 
permanency in it all. The members of this 
vast army labor In the consciousness of the 
Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of 
Man. Individuals come and go, but the or- 
ganization lives and continues through the 
centuries to produce for society its saving 
fruit. In the hfe and organization of the 
Church the principle of selection, call it 
divine selection or vocation, If you will, finds 
fullest and freest play." 

"Is not that a new meaning that you are 
giving to religious vocation, just to suit your 
present purpose?" asked Miss Geddes. "Do 
you mean to tell us that the young man who 
believes himself called to the priesthood or 



Social Claim vs. Family Claim 183 

the young woman who talks about her voca- 
tion to the sisterhood Is merely responding to 
the social claim?'* 

*'Why, yes; that Is precisely what I mean, 
and If you will take the trouble to consult the 
literature on the subject written by the great 
masters of the spiritual life, you will find that 
their concept of the religious vocation Is not 
really different from that which I am here try- 
ing to explain. No Catholic youth or maiden 
expects God to come down In person and call 
him or her by name and Indicate the religious 
order that he or she Is to enter. These young 
people are filled with the consciousness of the 
Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of 
Man, and In the generosity of their young 
hearts they consecrate themselves wholly to 
their Father's service and expect to discover 
their Father's wish chiefly In the need of their 
brother and In their own capacity and Inclina- 
tion. To secure them against error In this 
direction the Church requires them to consult 
the spiritual guides whom she appoints to di- 
rect her children In the waysof peace and life." 



184 The Education of Our Girls 

"Studevan has a way of talking all around 
a subject," said Professor Shannon, "and he 
never will stop if he Is allowed to ride his 
hobby 'the glory of the vocation to the re- 
ligious life.' What would become of the 
world If we all became priests and nuns? He 
seems to have adopted as his philosophy of 
life Hamlet's advice to Ophelia: *I say we 
will have no more marriages. Those that are 
married already, all but one, shall live; the 
rest shall keep as they are. To a nunnery, go.' 

"He seems to forget that even under ideal 
conditions the schools have to train fifty girls 
who are to marry and remain In the world for 
every one that is destined for the religious 
life, and It Is with the education of the fifty 
and not with that of the one that we are con- 
cerned in the question of coeducation. Of 
course no one expects the candidates for the 
priesthood and the sisterhoods to be trained in 
coeducational Institutions. Keeping these re- 
ligious vocations in the foreground Is one of 
Studevan's devices for evading the real point 
under discussion. Please stick to the point, 



Social Claim vs. Family Claim 185 

Doctor, and tell us whether a convent school is 
better able to train a young woman for the 
world, whether it is more competent to give 
her the kind of training that she needs to be- 
come a wife and mother, than are coeduca- 
tional institutions." 

''Don't be so grouchy. Shannon; I really 
have no desire to evade the question as you 
state it, but we shall have to postpone discus- 
sion until next Friday evening and then we 
shall have to appeal to Mrs. O'Brien for illu- 
mination on this phase of the subject. Her 
experience will help us to reach a decision 
concerning the kind of education that is best 
suited for the wives and mothers of our day.'* 



CHAPTER IX 

The Vocations of Woman 

''Isn't Mrs. O'Brien going to give us the 
pleasure of her company this evening?" asked 
Professor Shannon. "You know we want 
her to Instruct Dr. Studevan on the kind of 
education that Is needed to fit our girls to be- 
come Ideal wives and mothers." 

"Kate will join us later. Mary is a bit 
under the weather this evening, and until she 
Is safely in dreamland claims her mother's 
undivided attention.'* 

"At our last meeting the Doctors seemed to 
make a very strange division of womankind," 
said Miss Ruth. "They have apparently for- 
gotten the existence of the bachelor girl, but 
I am afraid she will refuse to be Ignored." 

"If Dr. Studevan had his way," said Miss 
Geddes, "he would send every unmarried girl 
over twenty years of age into the convent." 

"Oh, it's hardly as bad as that. Miss 



The Vocations of Woman 187 

Geddes. But, really, I do question whether 
there is a third vocation for woman. If she 
is to become an integral part of the social sys- 
tem, she must find her orbit either in the home 
or in some organization for social service — 
call the organization a sisterhood or what you 
will. These lone women wandering through 
life without attachments are, like comets or 
meteors, strange beings sadly out of place in 
the social world.'* 

'That is hardly a fair way to look at the 
question, Doctor," said Miss Ruth. *'The so- 
cial and economic conditions of our times 
have advanced the marrying age of both 
sexes. Multitudes of our young women must 
labor to support themselves for some years, 
even though they contemplate marrying later 
on. A great many of them, in addition to 
supporting themselves, must care for aged 
parents and not infrequently for the younger 
members of the family as well. Many of 
these women do not feel themselves called to 
the religious life and they still remain single 
all their lives. There can be no question of 



1 88 The Education of Our Girls 

the duty of educational institutions to minis- 
ter to the needs of these people. It looks as 
though we must reckon with at least three vo- 
cations for women.'* 

*'Studevan's objection to the third vocation 
applies to bachelors with even greater force 
than it does to bachelor girls," said Mr. 
O'Brien. "If unmarried women over twenty 
years of age should enter the convent, what 
about unmarried men of over thirty?" 

"Why, they are not only out of place," said 
Dr. Studevan, "but they are more culpably 
so than women. Every individual owes a 
duty to the race which he should not be al- 
lowed to shirk. He should either found a 
home and strengthen his people numerically, 
or he should become a member of some regu- 
lar organization for social service, and in this 
way discharge his duty to society. The 
bachelor girl may not be altogether respon- 
sible for her detached condition, since it is 
quite possible that she would change it if the 
right man appeared on the scene, but society 
does not allow her freedom in seeking for a 



The Vocations of Woman 189 

suitable companion, while it leaves man ab- 
solutely free in this respect." 

"Would you advocate the passage of a 
law, Doctor," said Mr. O'Brien, "compelling 
all bachelors to marry? If it is their selfish- 
ness that keeps them single, would it not be 
wise for the state to tax them so heavily that 
they would find it to their advantage to marry 
and thus discharge their duty to society?" 

"On general principles I am inclined to 
agree with you," replied Dr. Studevan, "but, 
after all, our evenings would be rather dull 
without Shannon, and if he had a young wife 
and children to take care of, I am afraid he 
would find It rather difficult to grace our 
meetings with his presence. Society would 
sadly miss the mellow old bachelor." 

"And what would my wife do without 
Aunt Mary, who is always on hand in time 
of family need?" asked Mr. Eaton. "She 
makes the clothes for the little ones and Is 
chief nurse In time of sickness." 

"That Is all true, Mr. Eaton," said Mr. 
O'Brien, "but you are thinking of the old 



190 The Education of Our Girls 

maid and we were speaking of the bachelor 
girl; these are quite distinct species, you know. 
The sudden increase in the number of bache- 
lor girls is one of the alarming symptoms of 
the present situation. From Miss Ruth's 
statement of the case, this sudden increase is 
due to the social and economic conditions of 
the time, but would not the converse of this 
be much nearer to the truth? Are not the 
social and economic conditions here referred 
to traceable to the bachelor girls? W. A. 
Curtis in the Outlook for December 13, 1902, 
says : 

" 'Man is face to face with the fact that 
woman in the twentieth century is not his ally, 
his helpmate, his wife, but his competitor, his 
rival. . . . Once woman doubled our joys 
and halved our sorrows. She now halves our 
incomes and doubles those seeking employ- 
ment. Declaiming against the injustice of 
paying her half what a man got, in her blind- 
ness to the fact that man got twice as much 
in order that he might give her half, she has 
succeeded in getting her rate of compensation 



The Vocations of Woman 191 

raised somewhat, but his has descended to 
meet it. And so, some assert, result the un- 
married and unhappy thousands of women 
and men, so the increase of the social evil, so 
the weakening of the national stamina that 
assails a nation where family life is pass- 
ing. . . . Blindly, unconsciously, rudely, 
unchivalrously, yet with a righteous purpose 
at bottom, though he know it not, the col- 
lege man strikes at coeducation.' " 

*'That sounds like a voice from the last 
century," said Miss Ruth, "but it suggests 
many themes which would probably furnish 
profitable discussion for our evenings. Have 
man's wages descended? If there are too 
many seeking employment, why admit a 
million laborers a year to glut the market? 
Besides, woman has never been an Idler and 
it is hardly fair to blame her for following 
her employment when it left the home. 

"There are many families in our cities that 
consist of several grown girls and whose only 
male bread winner is the father, whose earning 
capacity is constantly diminishing as the needs 



192 The Education of Our Girls 

of the family Increase. Who are going to 
share their wages with these girls? They 
are not averse to marrying if decent men who 
are able to support them and who are worthy 
of their affection appear on the scene to claim 
their love and devotion ; meanwhile they must 
work for a living, and that away from home. 
The only question Is whether they shall enter 
the labor market uneducated and try to earn 
their living by the use of their muscle, of 
which they seem to have too scanty a supply, 
or whether they shall first receive an educa- 
tion that will enable them to live by their 
talents. Woman has chosen the latter of these 
alternatives and she feels herself entirely 
within her rights when she demands a share 
in the best education that society affords. 

"Dr. Shahan emphasizes this thought in 
*The House of God' (page 337). Let me 
read the passage for you : 

" 'And the world of woman? The insti- 
tutions of a given society are always affected 
by the prevailing forms of government. And 
§0 the logic of Democracy has already com- 



The Vocations of Woman 193 

pelled our modern society to open its schools 
to woman and grant her that equality of aca- 
demic privileges that she once sighed for in 
vain. It is because a good education for 
woman is no longer an ornament, but a neces- 
sity. And it is such because education is rap- 
idly becoming the indispensable need of every 
member of society who would cultivate God- 
given gifts and opportunities. From all sides 
comes a recognition of the new and unique 
position among states of our own beloved 
land. This United States is no longer the 
land of buccaneers or knights-errant of the 
world, but a magnificent, closely knit, self- 
conscious organism, filled with youth and 
strength, dragging along no ancient impedi- 
ments of hatred and wrong, that proposes in- 
deed an incredible advance, but proposes also 
to begin v/here other societies have stopped. 
It is in such a world that economic and social 
changes of the widest import are placing 
woman everywhere upon the intellectual level 
of man — frequently enough, indeed, much 
higher. She is beginning, in the most honor- 



194 The Education of Our Girls 

able way, to shine In sciences that seemed 
once closed to her almost by a law of nature. 
Here, too, are we to take no account of the 
flood that Is rising on all sides, but fold our 
arms and placidly wait for the extinction 
among us of all the glorious prestige and 
moral power that will attach to learning so 
long as society exists?' " 

"I am glad to welcome you to our side of 
this controversy, Miss Ruth," said Professor 
Shannon; "I always felt that your good judg- 
ment would assert Itself In the end and that 
you would abandon Studevan and his vaga- 
ries. Woman has been compelled to enter 
into competition with man, and in seeking an 
education In the institutions which have 
equipped her competitors she is using her 
common sense and following her Instincts, 
which are always true." 

*'Are not your conclusions just a bit hasty. 
Professor?" asked Dr. Studevan. "I find my- 
self agreeing with everything that Miss Ruth 
has said and in entire accord with every line of 
Dr. Shahan's magnificent essay on the Need 



The Vocations of Woman 195 

of a Catholic University, from which she has 
just read. 

"The time has come for the higher educa- 
tion of our sons and daughters, and in this 
work Catholics can not afford to lag behind 
the movement ; they must be its leaders and its 
guides. With the flower of Catholic man- 
hood and womanhood devoting themselves 
with zeal and enthusiasm to the cause of edu- 
cation, there Is only needed a helping hand 
from those amongst us whom God has blessed 
with wealth to put Catholic educational Insti- 
tutions in the forefront of the movement. 
The Catholic heart that built the cathedrals 
of Europe and laid the foundations of its 
great universities will not permit our religious 
teachers to go forth to their life work with- 
out the best intellectual equipment that the 
age affords. 

"However, your statement that * woman 
has been compelled to enter Into competition 
with man* seems strangely out of place on the 
lips of a modern sociologist. Any close ob- 
server of present social and economic condi- 



196 The Education of Our Girls 

tions must see that the age of competition is 
passing; the future belongs to cooperation. 

"But to return to Miss Ruth's statement, 
I quite agree with her that woman is not re- 
sponsible for the present conditions, as Mr. 
Curtis would seem to imply. Labor-saving 
machinery, by sweeping industry from the 
home, has compelled woman to seek employ- 
ment in new fields. In doing this she is not 
invading man's province. Employment for 
both men and women has completely changed 
and both have to adjust themselves to these 
changed conditions. The man who inveighs 
against woman labor bases his judgment on 
superficial aspects. Whether woman works in 
the home, in the office, or in the factory, is a 
mere accident; the important thing has re- 
mained unchanged — that is, that she works. 

"A close survey of the field reveals the fact 
that woman is claiming for herself certain in- 
dustrial provinces which she will make her 
own and from which she will eliminate man 
quite as effectively as she formerly eliminated 
him from spinning and weaving. There is a 



The Vocations of Woman 197 

strange mixture of truth and error In that arti- 
cle of Mr. Curtis. Will you let me have the 
magazine for a moment, Mr. O'Brien? Just 
listen to this : 

" 'Numerically the college woman is not a 
large factor, but she is a sure factor, and the 
college man, obeying one of those strange 
psychological waves that sweep over a nation 
and make all blind, unconscious agents in a 
great change, a great reform, is trying to save 
her from herself for himself. Coeducation 
will not pass. . . . But the competition of 
woman with man will pass.' 

"In the years which have elapsed since Cur- 
tis wrote this, the number of co-eds has in- 
creased with great rapidity, nevertheless I 
believe he was mistaken when he said 'coedu- 
cation will not pass.* The truth of his other 
statement, that competition will pass, must be 
evident to every student of sociology. Woman 
never has been In any serious competition with 
man in the labor market. When the new 
province of woman In the industrial world be- 
comes clearly defined, woman will find it to 



198 The Education of Our Girls 

her interest to seek her education in those 
schools which in scope and method are being 
developed to meet her peculiar needs.'' 

"Are we to understand, Doctor," said Pro- 
fessor Shannon, *'that man is about to abdicate 
the learned professions because woman has put 
in an appearance ? and that woman is to do all 
the teaching and to fill all the clerical positions 
and to do all the journalistic work and to write 
our magazine articles and our books? If these 
positions are not to be relinquished to women, 
how is competition to cease between man 
and woman? And if woman is going to 
claim all this as her province, the next genera- 
tion of men will have to take to the tall 
timbers." 

''It's coming to that very rapidly," said Mr. 
Eaton. "It is already becoming very difficult 
to secure domestic servants. The other day a 
friend sent a colored girl to us, and when my 
wife took her into the kitchen and began to 
instruct her concerning her duties, the girl 
grew quite indignant and asked my wife if she 
really expected her to stand over a hot stove 



The Vocations of Woman 199 

cooking and gave her to understand that she 
was a high school graduate." 

"Your alarm, gentlemen," said Dr. Stude- 
van, "reminds me of an old friend, who, after 
quoting a splendid passage descriptive of the 
solar system, proceeded to exhibit his utter 
failure to comprehend the fundamental laws 
of the system. He reasoned that if from any 
cause the weight of the earth were Increased 
it would drop Into the sun, and that if Its mo- 
tion were retarded ever so little the same dire 
fate would befall It; while If Its weight were 
diminished or Its motion increased It would 
wander off In ever widening circles Into Inter- 
stellar space. He had evidently failed to 
realize the power of adjustment possessed by 
the solar system. And so I sometimes think 
that our alarmists fail to realize society's 
power of self-adjustment. 

"Woman has entered the Industrial arena, 
where she must find her employment in the 
future; she is crowding the academic depart- 
ments of our universities and colleges, from 
which the young men have departed to pre- 



200 The Education of Our Girls 

pare for their future In technical and profes- 
sional schools. But even If woman's orbit Is 
being changed under the stress of present con- 
ditions, we need feel no alarm. Woman will 
find her new orbit and be as true to it as she 
has been to the old." 

" 'Frailty, thy name is woman,' was prob- 
ably due to Hamlet's liver," said the Profes- 
sor, "but to what shall we attribute Dr. Stude- 
van's Inconsistency? A little while ago he 
denied to the bachelor girl a vocation and set 
up the old cry that every woman should marry 
or betake herself to a convent, and now he 
calmly assures us that woman In this *ThIrd 
Estate' has conquered for herself whole prov- 
inces of the Industrial world and in fact that 
she Is moving In a new orbit." 

" 'Aye, Nello, and If they tongue can 
leave off Its everlasting chirping long enough 
for thy understanding to consider the matter, 
thou mayst see' that there Is In this seeming 
Inconsistency no sterner stuff than dreams are 
made of. If you were consistent, you would 
accuse all Catholics of Inconsistency, since they 



The Vocations of Woman 201 

accept purgatory and still subscribe to the be- 
lief that there are only two eternal states. If 
you had been attending to the discussion in- 
stead of allowing your fancy to wander in 
more pleasant places, you would have learned 
ere this that multitudes of women who occupy 
these newly conquered industrial provinces 
have not relinquished the hope of reigning 
over homes of their own. You would have 
learned also that this lady-bachelordom, which 
seems to have obsessed you, is a sort of tad- 
pole state of existence in which certain women 
dwell for a time before passing into the realms 
of bliss." 

''Lady-bachelordom," said Mr. O'Brien, 
'Vould seem to be a state which it is highly 
desirable that young women should avoid, and 
if the uncontrollable current of events should 
leave any fair maiden's bark stranded on these 
desolate shores, it is the duty of friends and 
neighbors to hasten to the rescue. Have I 
caught your meaning. Doctor?" 

"The gentlemen are frivolous to-night," 
said Miss Ruth, "which is hardly worthy of 



202 The Education of Our Girls 

them or of the subject under discussion. We 
are confronted by conditions, not theories. 
While the fact remains that multitudes of 
young women must labor to support them- 
selves and those dependent upon them, educa- 
tional institutions cannot afford to neglect 
their intellectual needs. And, as I have said 
before, there are a great many women who 
never marry and who, nevertheless, feel no 
call to the religious life. Have these women 
no rights that educational institutions should 
respect?" 

"My dear madam, if I have given offense 
by my seeming levity, let me hasten to apolo- 
gize. You know it is hard to be serious when 
Professor Shannon espouses the cause of the 
bachelor-girl. But I was really in earnest in 
maintaining that there are only two vocations 
for women. Each one of us owes to society 
a duty that is above all selfish or Individual 
interests, and this duty we can fully discharge 
only by becoming organic parts of society, 
either as a member of a home group or of 
some larger group whose explicit aim is social 



The Vocations of Woman 203 

service. A woman who does not marry and 
who feels no call to the religious life may still 
take part in uplifting her race by cooperating 
with some permanent organization by the 
work of her hands or of her brain or by con- 
tributing of her worldly possessions. 

"As to those women who labor for a time 
to support themselves and those dependent 
upon them before they assume the duties of 
married life, it is quite evident that their needs 
in this temporary state of existence should 
be taken into account, but their education 
should be so conducted that this passing phase 
of their existence and its needs would remain 
subordinate. The chief purpose of their 
training should be to fit them for the worthy 
discharge of their duties when they take up 
their real life work. 

"I am not forgetting that many women 
who have no call to the religious life remain 
in the world unmarried. There is no class of 
women in the community more conspicuous 
for social service. How many a home is pre- 
served by the heroic self-sacrifice of these 



204 The Education of Our Girls 

women? How many an aged father and 
mother are kept from the poorhouse and al- 
lowed to spend lifers evening in the peace and 
comfort of their own home through the devo- 
tion of their daughters, when, as too often 
happens, their sons have failed to realize the 
hopes and expectations of their boyhood! 

"It is surely as worthy a social service to 
labor in this way to prevent the helpless from 
becoming a public burden as it is to minister 
to those who have become demoralized 
through poverty and hardship. It not infre- 
quently happens that a member of a religious 
community is sent back into the world to care 
for an aged parent whom the waves of adver- 
sity have left stranded on a desolate shoal. 
But while I recognize all this, I believe, 
nevertheless, that a life of this kind is not and 
should not be chosen as a lifers vocation, and 
hence the school cannot take it into account as 
such. 

*'The young woman in her generosity as- 
sumes these burdens intending to carry them 
for a time only. She usually hopes later on 



The Vocations of Woiijan 205 

either to marry or to enter a convent, but it 
too often happens that in the faithful dis- 
charge of these duties her youth slips from 
her, and when freedom comes it is too late 
to do either. 

"My contention, consequently, amounts to 
this: every girl who does not intend to join a 
sisterhood should be so educated that she will 
be able to discharge efficiently the duties of a 
wife and mother should Divine Providence 
call her to that position. I hold, this conten- 
tion being granted, that an education which 
is shaped exclusively to meet man's needs 
will prove inadequate to the needs of our 
young women." 

*Tou are just in time, Mrs. O'Brien," said 
Professor Shannon; "Dr. Studevan has been 
floundering hopelessly in his endeavor to en- 
lighten us concerning the kind of education 
that is suitable for the wife and mother of 
to-day." 

"How is Mary?" asked Miss Ruth. 

"She caught a severe cold and is a bit fever- 
ish, but is sleeping nicely now, thank you. I 



2o6 The Education of Our Girls 

am very sorry to have missed the discussion 
this evening. Please tell me what it was 
about." 

"There wasn't much new in it," said Miss 
Geddes. "Dr. Studevan was trying to prove 
that our educational institutions should take 
account of only two vocations for women; 
their treasures are for those who marry or for 
those who enter the convent; the rest of us are 
to be entirely ignored." 

"Now, that is hardly fair, Mrs. O'Brien; 
all I have said is this : all women who do not 
intend to become Sisters should fit themselves 
during their school-days to discharge the du- 
ties of wives and mothers, because there is 
really no telling where the lightning will 
strike, you know." 

"I am afraid I shall have to agree with you, 
Doctor. I have grown very distrustful of the 
higher education of woman as it is too fre- 
quently understood at present. Of course I 
do not believe that anybody, man or woman, 
can be too highly educated, but a great many 
people in these days seem to get the wrong 



The Vocations of Woman 207 

kind of education. It seems to me that when- 
ever an education renders people unhappy and 
discontented with their state In hfe It Is the 
wrong kind of education." 

*'That Is the sanest view of the subject that 
has been expressed," said Dr. Studevan. 
"Education should be a developmental proc- 
ess; it should lift up and ennoble the ordinary 
things of life; It should glorify duty and trans- 
figure labor; It should perfect the adjustments 
of Individual life and promote the happiness 
and well-being of society. 'By their fruits ye 
shall know them.' And the higher education 
of women that falls to bring forth these fruits 
stands condemned, like the barren fig tree of 
the Gospel." 

"There, Studevan Is at It again," said the 
Professor. "We have been waiting all even- 
ing for Mrs. O'Brien to tell us the kind of 
education that Is most helpful to wives and 
mothers, but of course Studevan must crowd 
her off the platform and preach to us again." 

"Don't mind him. Doctor; I would much 
rather listen to you talk. You say the things 



2o8 The Education of Our Girls 

that I have been thinking and you say them 
much better than I could." 

''That's very kind of you, Mrs. O'Brien, 
but really, I have told them all I know about 
the subject, and Shannon is right; you have 
been patiently listening to us for several even- 
ings and we have all grown hungry for your 
views." 

"It didn't take any patience on my part, I 
assure you ; on the contrary, I have been very 
much interested in what you were all saying 
and did not think of anything to say myself. 

"I wonder if psychologists do understand 
women, after all. No, I didn't mean the 
Doctor; I was thinking about what Professor 
Miinsterberg said. He could not have under- 
stood women when he wrote that higher edu- 
cation removed from them the desire to marry. 
It is not easy for any woman to part with these 
deep instincts of her nature. Even when a 
woman goes into the convent it is not because 
she finds in her heart no promptings to love 
and marriage. In the generosity of her soul 
she offers these things up to God in remem- 



The Vocations of Woman 209 

brance of what He suffered for us and she de- 
votes her life to the service of others that she 
may grow daily more like her divine Master. 

"I don't agree with the Professor at all 
when he blames the cultural development of 
women for preventing marriage and for ren- 
dering married people unhappy. Even 
though a wife's cultural development be supe- 
rior to that of her husband, it will not render 
her unhappy, that is, if she has good common 
sense. Women are able to appreciate a dia- 
mond in the rough. And a sensible woman 
doesn't love a man the less because he is una- 
ble to talk about literature and art. And, be- 
sides, if a woman has the right kind of culture 
herself, she will impart a great deal of it to 
her husband. I sometimes think that real cul- 
ture must be a matter of inheritance; it is the 
fine feeling and the quick sympathy rather 
than the external polish. 

"Higher education may be responsible for 
keeping many women from getting married; 
and it may also be responsible for a great deal 
of the wretchedness and unhappiness of mar- 



2IO The Education of Our Girls 

ried life; but, If so, the blame should be laid 
on the things that have not been taught rather 
than on the things that our girls actually 
learned at college. 

"For instance, there is Mrs. Hamlyn, as 
charming a little woman in many ways as you 
could find in the city. She has an M. A. 
degree from the State University. Some of 
her verses are really exquisite and her pictures 
are not bad. But all this has not contributed 
much to the happiness of her home. Mr. 
Hamlyn has a fair income, they entertain very 
little, and yet they are always in debt. They 
are both excellent people and might be ex- 
pected to make each other very happy, but I 
believe if they could untie the knot to-morrow 
without giving scandal, they would gladly 
do so. 

"Now, what is the trouble? I don't mean 
that all the blame rests on Mrs. Hamlyn; but 
there is more food wasted in her kitchen than 
would support two families; she is always in 
trouble with her servants and she lives in ab- 
ject terror of them; the meals are irregular. 



The Vocations of Woman 2 1 1 

the table Is seldom appetizing, and Mr. Ham- 
lyn^s tastes are never considered ; her house Is 
usually In disorder and her children are abso- 
lutely undisciplined. 

"I cannot help thinking what a happy little 
home she would have If she had received the 
right kind of training when she was a young 
girl. But her mother never asked her to do a 
thing about the house ; she was not allowed to 
wet her fingers lest It might render them unfit 
for the piano; and during all the years that 
she spent In the high school and at the univer- 
sity she devoted her entire attention to 
science and literature and to everything, In 
fact, but to that which she most needs now. 

"A woman In Mrs. Hamlyn's position 
would seldom need to cook, but If she under- 
stood cooking as a science and delighted In It 
as an art, she would so supervise the work as 
to prevent waste. She would be absolutely 
Independent of her servants and would have 
no difficulty in holding their respect. And 
then, too, her table would not be such a trial 
to her husband's temper. If her artistic taste 



212 The Education of Our Girls 

had been developed along the lines of dress 
and home adornment, It would contribute in 
no Inconsiderable degree to her own happiness 
and to the welfare of her family." 

"Training of the kind you advocate," said 
Miss Geddes, "might have sufficed In the past, 
and It is doubtless all right for those who de- 
sire it In the present, but there are many 
women who have made up their minds to re- 
main single rather than be any man's drudge. 
I'd like to see myself doing the marketing, 
paring the potatoes, washing the dishes, and 
nursing the children, to satisfy any man. The 
days for that sort of thing have passed. The 
woman of to-day claims an equal right with 
man to share In the things of the mind." 



CHAPTER X 

Domestic Science 

"Mrs. O'Brien^ I am very glad to find you 
on our side of this question," said Professor 
Shannon. "From what you said last Friday 
evening I Infer that you are quite satisfied 
with the education that Mrs. Hamlyn received 
In the high school and the university. I agree 
with you In tracing her present troubles to the 
training which her mother failed to give her 
in the home, so the blame rests on her mother 
and not on the university." 

"I don't know who Is to blame for It," re- 
plied Mrs. O'Brien. "Mrs. Hamlyn's mother 
had a large family and she was a very busy 
woman, but she was an excellent housekeeper. 
She was an old lady when I knew her, but 
even then It would do your heart good to go 
into her kitchen ; she kept everything In It as 
neat as wax. While I never saw her dressed 
elaborately, she was always neat, and her 



214 The Education of Our Girls 

home always seemed so fresh and cozy that It 
rested you just to go Into It." 

"How was It possible for a woman like that 
to raise such a daughter as Mrs. Hamlyn?" 
asked Mr. Eaton. 

"They make such demands on the children 
in the schools these days that they seem to 
leave time for nothing else," replied Mrs. 
O'Brien. "When Mary and Arthur come 
home from school they have so many lessons 
to learn that It Is bedtime before they get 
through. And conditions are much worse in 
the high school. There Is not even sufficient 
time for legitimate amusement, and in those 
years when a young girl would most easily 
learn to cook and sew and take care of the 
home she Is so overwhelmed with school work 
that her mother is In constant fear for her 
health and wouldn't for the world ask her to 
do another thing." 

"In this fear the mother instinct is asserting 
itself," said Dr. Studevan. "I wish all 
mothers would read Dr. Engelmann's article 
In Public Opinion for January lo, 1901. 



Domestic Science 215 

While we may not wholly agree with every- 
thing he says, there Is undoubtedly a great 
deal of wholesome truth In the article. He Is 
quite right when he says that the present day 
native American girl of the middle class Is 
the artificial product of advanced civilization ; 
that she Is a bundle of nerves encased in a 
fragile frame and that there Is grave reason 
to fear, unless a radical change is made In her 
upbringing, that the consequences will be seri- 
ous to the entire community. Less brain work 
and more fresh air are the remedies that he 
recommends. 

''All this Is in line with what Mr. O'Brien 
said at the beginning of this discussion. The 
curriculum of the high school and particularly 
that of the college has been shaped with a 
view to the capacity of the young men and 
with reference to their peculiar needs. Even 
when the girl attempts nothing further than 
the work outlined by the high school and col- 
lege, she is, in those critical years of her physi- 
cal development, seriously endangering her 
health by over work. And, as Mrs. O'Brien 



2i6 The Education of Our Girls 

has just pointed out, she has many things to 
learn which are of even greater importance to 
her future welfare than are the subjects in- 
cluded in the curriculum of coeducational insti- 
tutions." 

"And then," said Mrs. O'Brien, ''many of 
these girls leave home to board in dormitories 
or private houses during the time they attend 
the university courses, and so they lose their 
taste for domestic employment and get out of 
the way of doing anything in the house. It is 
during these years that our girls take on man- 
nish ways and unfeminine attitudes of mind. 
I marked this passage in an editorial in this 
morning's paper: 

" 'Recently, at a meeting of educators, 
President G. Stanley Hall, of Clark Univer- 
sity, returned to his charge with the declara- 
tion that a further study of college statistics had 
convinced him that ten years after graduation 
about one-fourth of the men and one-half of 
the women remained unmarried. He deduced 
from this state of affairs that the higher edu- 
cation tended to discourage marriage. 



Domestic Science 1 1 7 

** 'Other educators are loath to follow 
President Hall In his declaration, and the 
leaders of such women's colleges as Smith, 
Bryn Mawr and Vassar think his reasoning Is 
fallacious. They do not believe that educa- 
tion Is the cause of failure to marry, but that 
changed social and economic conditions are re- 
sponsible, and they declare that when the col- 
lege girl does decide to marry, she makes a 
good wife and mother. 

*' 'Of course, a layman must be chary of 
venturing on ground where even the women 
educators tread timorously, but It does seem 
as If there might well be some soundness In 
the argument of President Hall. The higher 
education has done absolutely nothing toward 
changing the fact that It Is the woman — edu- 
cated or not — who must wait to be wooed and 
won. Certainly, the higher education must 
be a great aid to her In deciding, when the 
wooer comes, whether or not he Is a fit mate 
for her; and If he Is not fit, that same training 
must give her strength of mind enough, know- 
ing, as she must, the evil consequences of 111- 



21 8 The Education of Our Girls 

assorted marriages, to refuse him. At least, 
the higher education has saved woman from 
"choosing her mate from a mob," as Hood 
said. She has learned, along with her Latin- 
ity and other things, that a husband Is not an 
absolute necessity; that. Indeed, If she can not 
get the right sort, it Is, perhaps, better both 
for herself and her race to have none at 
all.' 

"There Is some truth In what the editor 
says, and In as far as he Is right, higher educa- 
tion must be regarded as a blessing. If it only 
kept people from marrying who were unfit to 
be married there would be little cause for 
complaint, but were that true there should be 
a proportionate Increase In the number of suc- 
cessful marriages, which, I am afraid, is not 
the case. I think when the whole truth Is 
known that the cause of this abnormally high 
percentage of unmarried girls among college 
graduates will be traced to the mode of life 
in the colleges and coeducational universities. 
If the girls were in charge of wise mothers 
during these years, or if they lived In convent 



Domestic Science 219 

homes under the sweet and simple Influence of 
the Sisters, there would be another story to 
tell." 

"Undoubtedly, your plan would improve 
matters," said Dr. Studevan, "but I do not 
think that it contains the entire solution of the 
problem. It will be interesting to tabulate the 
results among the graduates of such colleges 
as Trinity, St. Elizabeth's, St. Clara's, 
St. Mary's and St. Catherine's. Five years 
from now will tell that story. But it is my 
opinion that if the course of study is not so 
shaped during those formative years of a 
young woman's life and character as to blend 
domestic employments with school occupa- 
tions and lift the whole question of domestic 
science to a high plane worthy of the intelli- 
gent study of our brightest young women, 
neither mothers nor sisters will be able to pre- 
vent a very high ratio of bachelor-girls among 
our college graduates." 

"It amounts to this, then," said Miss 
Geddes, "that woman must choose between 
being a sort of upper-servant for some man: 



220 The Education of Our Girls 

to cook his meals for him, to make the beds, 
and nurse the children, to look up to him most 
devoutly, and coddle him for a week at a 
time when she wants to get a new bonnet or a 
new dress ; or she must get a college education 
and, through It, Independence and freedom to 
go and come as she pleases, to support herself 
In a way that suits her own tastes and to meet 
man on terms of equality. How long do you 
suppose our young women will hesitate be- 
tween these two alternatives?" 

"Are we really confronted with such a di- 
lemma?" asked Miss Ruth. "Domestic 
science hardly consists In paring potatoes and 
making beds. Its advocates see In It a source 
of interest that flows out Into all the other 
sciences of the curriculum. Physics, chemistry, 
biology, economics and geography are clothed 
with a new Interest for the student of domestic 
science. 

"And again, making woman's training iden- 
tical with that of man will hardly secure her 
the freedom and equality which she craves. 
Her highest freedom, as well as her highest 



Domestic Science 221 

development, comes from obedience to the 
laws of her own nature. This apparent di- 
lemma w^ould, therefore, seem to arise from 
the unfortunate attempt to force man's educa- 
tion on woman's nature." 

''That touches the very core of the diffi- 
culty," said Dr. Studevan. "When God cre- 
ated man and woman I am afraid that He 
failed to take into account the entrance re- 
quirements or the final examinations of our 
high schools and colleges. 

''All education should be determined by the 
nature and the needs of the individual in ques- 
tion. This has been my contention from the 
beginning. Woman's nature and needs are 
different from those of man and hence her 
education should be different. The ignoring 
of this difference is, in large measure, respon- 
sible for the social disaster which surrounds 
us on every side. 

"Woman has lost her domestic tastes and 
she shrinks from household cares. She is at 
the mercy of her servants, who harass her and 
squander her means until, in her despair, she 



22 2 The Education of Our Girls 

abandons her home for a flat from which chil- 
dren arc banished. 

"It is a misconception of the whole subject 
to suppose that woman's intellect will be less 
highly developed by subjecting it to a disci- 
pline which is peculiarly adapted to the nature 
of woman's intellect than by subjecting it to 
a discipline which ignores woman's nature and 
woman's needs and is shaped wholly in view 
of man's uses." 

"But," said Professor Shannon, "if the 
work of the high school and the college is, as 
Mrs. O'Brien says, more than enough to tax 
the strength of the girl, where is she to find 
the time or the energy for the cultivation of 
those domestic arts which you seem to con- 
sider such an essential part of woman's educa- 
tion ? How is she to cultivate these arts with- 
out lowering the standard of her college edu- 
cation?" 

"Oh, man has had woman for his slave so 
long," said Miss Geddes, "that we must not 
blame him too much if he now finds it hard to 
give her her freedom." 



Domestic Science 223 

^'My dear Miss Geddes, I fear that I am 
the most unfortunate of men since I always 
seem to be incurring your displeasure/' said 
Dr. Studevan. *'Now, I of all men should 
have the least interest in holding woman in 
bondage, for, whatever may happen to her, 
my fate, you know, is sealed. I can only re- 
ceive her ministrations from afar. And really, 
I do wish I could convince you that the thou- 
sand kindnesses which I have received from 
the members of the fair sex have made me 
their eternal debtor. And in this discussion 
I am pleading their cause and contending for 
their interests as I see them. I lay no claim 
to infallibility, and whatever may be my mis- 
takes, I beg that you will at least credit me 
with kind intentions." 

"It is very hard to credit you with any kind 
of intentions," said Professor Shannon. "You 
are so slippery and inconsistent that it is 
scarcely possible to keep track of your moves. 
I would be grateful to you, and I think I 
may speak for the others present, if you would 
take a day off to recall the various things you 



224 The Education of Our Girls 

have said on coeducation and the higher edu- 
cation of women in these discussions. If you 
will put your various statements together, you 
may come to realize how hopeless it is for any- 
one to quite understand you. We will give you 
the floor for a whole evening and bind our- 
selves not to interrupt you once, if you will un- 
dertake to give a rational account of yourself." 

"It would be worth almost any effort," re- 
plied Dr. Studevan, "to keep you silent for a 
whole evening, particularly if you will face 
the other side of the room." 

"Why, that's an excellent idea," said Mr. 
O'Brien. "But would it not be well to let 
others share our pleasure ? I am sure a num- 
ber of our friends would be glad to hear Dr. 
Studevan's talk. Let us have a little parlor 
lecture some Friday evening that will suit the 
Doctor's convenience. The room will com- 
fortably seat about forty, so if each one pres- 
ent will bring a half dozen friends, we will 
give Dr. Studevan the platform, or we will 
erect a pulpit for him if it will make him feel 
more at home." 



Domestic Science 225 

*Tlease do, Doctor," said Miss Ruth; '*lt 
will help all of us to gather up the fruits of 
this discussion before passing on to other sub- 
jects." 

''I don't object In the least," replied the 
Doctor. "No music delights me so much as 
the sound of my own voice when lecturing to 
a few choice minds. But If we are to gather 
In a number of persons who are likely to be 
Interested In this subject, would It not be well 
to Invite those who have the means and the 
inclination to help the work along? In the 
meanwhile, let me try to put myself right with 
Miss Geddes and In one detail at least to an- 
ticipate my lecture. 

"It seems to me. Miss Geddes, that we 
should look at the whole subject in this way: 
The advent of steam and electricity In the in- 
dustrial world has removed from the home the 
various employments which served to give an 
objective training, both sensory and motor, to 
many generations of boys and girls. Now, it 
is the obvious duty of the school to supply to 
the children in this respect what the homes 



226 The Education of Our Girls 

have ceased to give. At present the boy gets 
this objective training in the laboratories of 
physics, chemistry and mechanical engineer- 
ing, and the girls should get a similar objec- 
tive training in schools which teach the domes- 
tic arts. 

**The advent of the factory in the industrial 
world has accomplished many things that have 
rendered competition by home industry im- 
possible. Among other things the introduc- 
tion of science into the processes of manufac- 
ture has brought about the utilization of by- 
products unattainable in home industry; 
things that in the home went to waste are here 
made to yield a large proportion of the profits. 
Thus In the manufacture of corn syrup there 
are twenty-two valuable by-products, which in 
the old days would have been returned to fer- 
tilize the fields. Why should domestic science 
not partake of the same general advance? 

*'Is there any good reason why the girl 
should not be taught the art of cooking with 
the same care and with the use of the same 
instruments of precision that a boy employs in 



Domestic Science 227 

his physical laboratory? And why should not 
the preparation of food be made for her the 
center of an interest which would radiate into 
physiology, chemistry and botany, or why 
should not the adornment of the dining-room 
table and the artistic combination and arrange- 
ment of pictures, bric-a-brac, rugs and furni- 
ture In a home be made a similar focus of in- 
terest for the development of her aesthetic 
faculties ? 

"Woman needs an objective training as 
much as man needs it; but to deprive her of an 
objective training along the lines of inherited 
tendency and in accordance with her present 
and future needs, and to substitute for this 
training a laboratory training in mineralogy, 
physics and mechanical engineering, is to cheat 
woman out of her birthright. To make an 
education that should be a means to her future 
happiness the Instrument of her undoing can 
be pardoned. If at all, only on the score of 
ignorance." 

"I had a good illustration of that truth 
yesterday," said Miss Ruth. "I called to see 



2 28 The Education of Our Girls 

Miss Canfield In her new position as matron 
of the Ophthalmic Hospital. She was nat- 
urally anxious to have the table for the 
doctors appetizing, and so when, an hour be- 
fore lunch, the cook reported that there was 
nothing on hand for the doctors' luncheon, I 
expected her to be annoyed, but she didn't 
seem so. 

*'She asked me to go with her to the kitchen. 
While we were there she found some small 
pieces of chicken that were left over from the 
dinner of the evening before. She directed 
the cook to bake some potatoes, and, slipping 
on an apron, she made some delicious ginger 
bread. In three-quarters of an hour she had 
a dainty luncheon served, consisting of baked 
potatoes, minced chicken on toast, hot ginger 
bread, home-made apply jelly and chocolate. 

*'In the course of the afternoon one of the 
doctors happened to come into the room 
where we were sitting, and he took occasion 
to thank Miss Canfield for the dehclous 
luncheon, and vowed that if he could find a 
young lady who could serve his table In that 



Domestic Science 229 

way, he would end his bachelor days as soon 
as she would consent." 

^'Granted," said Professor Shannon, "that 
our young women need objective training 
along the lines of domestic science; it does 
seem reasonable that a young woman who is 
looking forward to marriage and who expects 
some day to preside over a home of her own 
should receive a training that would fit her for 
the worthy discharge of the many duties that 
devolve upon a wife and mother. 

"But isn't a convent the last school on earth 
that might be expected to give a girl this 
training? The mother is the proper person to 
train her daughter along these lines, and If 
her work must be supplemented In the school, 
the teacher should evidently be a woman of 
experience, a widow, for instance, who in her 
day had presided successfully over a home. 
What can a Sister know about managing a 
husband and taking care of babies and direct- 
ing a household?" 

"It seems evident," said Mr. O'Brien, "that 
the school should supplement the home train- 



230 The Education of Our Girls 

ing of the girl, and It should not be difficult to 
differentiate the work of the school from that 
of the home. Our mechanical and mining 
engineers are trained In theory In the techni- 
cal schools, while they receive their practice 
In the factory and In the mine. And so, in 
the training of our girls, the scientific and 
theoretical sides of the question should be 
handled in the school, and the mother should 
take care of the practical applications in the 
home. 

"It is not easy to see how an experience of 
married life will render the teacher more 
competent to teach chemistry, physiology, 
and cooking, or music and aesthetics. Many 
years spent in the practice of a trade Is not 
usually considered a proper qualification for 
a teacher In a school of technology. For the 
best results theory must ever render practice 
intelligible, and practice must concrete theory 
and render It tangible." 

*'It is strange," said Dr. Studevan, "that 
men like Professor Shannon, whose lives are 
devoted to the study of economic and social 



Domestic Science 231 

problems, should fail to see that the persons 
who are immersed in the details of a subject 
are unable to get perspective, or to catch the 
large lines of truth and the relationship of 
parts. 

''Men perceived the orderly movements of 
the heavenly bodies long centuries before 
they understood that the same laws govern 
the movements of bodies in their immediate 
vicinity. Newton sent a thrill of exaltation 
through the world, not by the discovery of 
the law of gravity, but by discovering that 
the falling apple is subject to the same law 
that holds the planets in their orbits. 

"It is difficult to see truths that are close 
to us. This finds expression in such axioms 
as 'The doctor who prescribes for himself 
has a fool for his physician,' and 'No one is 
judge in his own case.' A prudent doctor 
never prescribes for the members of his own 
household; they are too near to him and his 
affections are likely to blind his judgment. 
Similarly, the Church in her wisdom appoints 
a celibate clergy, who hold themselves aloof 



232 The Education of Our Girls 

from the business entanglements of the world 
to be the guides and advisers of her children 
in their domestic relations and In the justice 
and equity of their business transactions. 

"And so, too, the Sister, from her vantage 
ground In the convent, obtains perspective. 
She sees the needs and tendencies of the 
times, and, not being Immersed In the details 
of home life, nor blinded by personal Interest, 
she Is enabled to take a broader view and to 
hold up to her pupils a higher Ideal of domes- 
tic life and to guide them more securely to its 
attainment. Her position Is like that of the 
general who withdraws from the firing-line 
in order to direct the battle." 

"Could anything be more fantastic," ex- 
claimed Miss Geddes, "than a nun in her 
convent home teaching a girl how to secure 
domestic felicity! — a woman who has given 
herself up to fasting and prayer teaching a 
girl how to pander to the tastes of a fastidi- 
ous husband! — a woman who has fled from 
the joys of motherhood Instructing a girl 
concerning the proper care of infants !" 



Domestic Science 233 

"My dear Miss Geddes, I am afraid that 
you have never measured the height nor the 
depth of the courage that animates our Sis- 
ters. It Is not that they love home less, but 
that they love God and their fellow-beings 
more. We would utterly fail to realize the 
sublimity of their sacrifice if we were to pic- 
ture them to ourselves as shutting their eyes 
to the joys of the world, or as abandoning 
home life for the convent In order to seek 
their ease or to escape the trials and responsi- 
bilities of ordinary mortals. They look out 
with clear eyes upon the happiness of the 
homes they have left; their souls are filled 
with visions of the beautiful homes that 
might have been theirs had they remained In 
the world. They devote their lives to the 
work of bringing the happiness that they 
themselves have renounced into the lives of 
the many.^' 

"Why don't you take to writing poetry, 
Studevan?" asked the Professor; "it's a pity 
to have such sublime conceptions limping 
along in prose. But we are here dealing with 



2 34 The Education of Our Girls 

eminently practical Issues. Society Is teeming 
with evidences of domestic Infelicity, and the 
consequences are manifesting themselves in 
very alarming ways. If the proper education 
of our young women will remedy these evils 
in any measure, we want to know what the 
proper education is and where it may be ob- 
tained? 

"From what Mrs. O'Brien says, I take it 
that a long step in advance would be made by 
instructing our girls In the domestic arts. 
We are, therefore, confronted with a very 
practical Issue when we are asked to decide 
upon the relative merits of coeducational in- 
stitutions and convent schools. Is a nun bet- 
ter qualified to teach the domestic arts than 
are the teachers in our secular Institutions? 

''A few evenings ago you called attention 
to the heavy handicap under which the Sisters 
are laboring in their attempt to teach the 
ordinary school subjects. The number of 
teachers Is Insufficient to meet the present de- 
mands; they are hampered for means to give 
their candidates the requisite professional 



Domestic Science 235 

training, or to provide for the continuance of 
their professional studies; and if, in addition 
to all this, household duties absorb their time 
outside of school hours, how can we expect 
them to master the science and art of teach- 
ing, or to meet these new issues?'* 

''The conditions to which you refer," re- 
plied Dr. Studevan, "are neither universal 
nor beyond remedy. The conditions will be 
found quite different in many of the stronger 
communities, but the Sisters are so modest, 
and they do their work so quietly, that the 
public at large is not aware of the splendid 
preparation that many of their teachers re- 
ceive, nor do our Catholic people appreciate 
how anxiously these communities are striv- 
ing to perfect their members for the duties 
of their sublime vocation as teachers. They 
have a very clear idea of what is needed and 
only await the means, which surely will not 
be denied them, to give their teachers the 
best equipment that the science of our day 
makes possible. The papers published in the 
Catholic University Bulletin for July, 1907, 



236 The Education of Our Girls 

under the head of Notes on Primary Educa- 
tion, show this very plainly. Sister Antonine, 
writing on The Channels through which 
Discoveries in Pure Science Reach and 
Modify the Work of Primary and Inter- 
mediate Education, says: 

" The old idea that a teacher, like a poet, 
is born, no longer obtains; the last word on 
the subject is that he must he made. He, too, 
is the product of our laboratories. Science 
has decreed — and there is no gainsaying her 
— that it is not enough for a teacher to have 
natural aptitude or supernatural motive, a 
personal love for the work or an all-absorb- 
ing enthusiasm. He must be trained. If he 
possesses these qualities it is well, but they 
alone will never take the place of scientific 
training. 

*' 'Modern pedagogy demands much from 
the teacher and to meet this constantly grow- 
ing demand is the raison d'etre of our train- 
ing schools and normal colleges. . . . 

" The importance of the normal school 
system can scarcely be overestimated in these 



Domestic Science 237 

days of physical research and discoveries In 
pure science. Such schools draw their facul- 
ties from the best universities where they 
have been trained In methods, while their 
students are the future grade and high school 
teachers. In this pecuhar relation, the nor- 
mal schools form a connecting link between 
the universities and the grade schools, and 
are thus enabled to transmit the message 
received from the specialists in the one to the 
pupils In the other by perfecting the teacher's 
art and formulating a future working plan 
based upon these discoveries.' 

''Several years ago there was established, 
under the shadow of the University of Miin- 
ster, a Matroneum into which members of 
various teaching sisterhoods are gathered, 
where they live under a common rule during 
the years of their attendance at the courses 
given by the Professors of the University. I 
saw In a recent Issue of 'Rome' that the Eng- 
lish hierarchy had obtained the sanction of 
the Holy See for the establishment of a 
Catholic woman's college at Oxford. And 



238 The Education of Our Girls 

let us hope that the day is not far distant when 
we shall have a Teacher's College for our 
sisterhoods and our Catholic women at the 
Catholic University of America. This would 
unify our Catholic school system and at once 
lift to a higher plane of efficiency the work 
of all our Catholic schools. 

*'Our teaching sisterhoods are making a 
splendid effort to improve the training of 
their candidates, and the generosity of the 
Catholic people of this country will not long 
refuse to them the help of which they stand 
in such sore need. Feeling sure that we 
would all be interested in first-hand informa- 
tion concerning the training that our Sisters 
are now receiving, I requested the head of 
one of our representative teaching orders to 
inform me on the matter. I have her letter 
here, from which, with your permission, I 
will read a few extracts. 

" *In the large well-organized teaching 
orders, the Sisters who teach are relieved al- 
most entirely from household duties and give 
daily from two to four hours to preparation 



Domestic Science 239 

for their classes. It Is true that Sisters who 
teach in parish schools which are some dis- 
tance from the convent, and in which, more- 
over, the sessions begin at a very early hour 
in the morning and close at four o'clock in 
the afternoon, may have less than two hours 
for preparation on school days. But these 
Sisters as well as the others devote Saturday 
and a part of Sunday to the study and read- 
ing that their work requires. How many 
teachers of the public schools do as much in 
the midst of the home duties, shopping tours 
and dressmaking, social calls and amuse- 
ments, that fill their free time and their holi- 
days? . . . 

" *The large well-organized teaching or- 
ders have training schools in their novitiates. 
Those who govern these orders realize the 
importance of suitable preparation for the 
work of teaching, and they would be glad to 
have all the Sisters who are destined for that 
work complete a systematic course of study 
during their novitiate and the early years of 
their profession. 



240 The Education of Our Girls 

" *But under existing circumstances, all of 
these Sisters cannot be kept In the training 
school. Again and again It happens that 
promising classes doing earnest work are, 
month after month, thinned out by calls from 
this parish and that, this academy and that. 
The Superiors are obliged under the stress of 
circumstances to send out the student-teachers 
as assistant teachers to share burdens that 
have grown too heavy or to take entire charge 
of classes whose teachers have given out 
under the strain of over-work. 

" 'Increase the number of Sisters, send 
more postulants to religious teaching orders, 
and In a few years the training schools will 
have large classes going through an uninter- 
rupted course of study under mistresses who 
have had years of successful experience In 
teaching. 

" *The Superiors look hopefully for this 
good time. Meanwhile they do the best they 
can to supply for deficiencies. Every evening 
teachers of more experience help their 
younger sisters In the preparation of school 



Domestic Science 241 

work. After this has been done, the teachers 
assemble for model lessons prepared by the 
supervisor or under her direction. For exam- 
ple, lessons In reading. In number, ''object 
lessons," designed to give the children new 
ideas, but more especially to develop the 
powers of observation. 

" 'In work of more advanced grade there 
are geography and history lessons, lessons In 
the physical sciences, etc. The Sisters submit 
their school work to the Superior and to one 
another for criticism; they expose their diffi- 
culties, ask advice, and discuss views on 
school matters. The whole of Saturday is 
given to study. There are regular Saturday 
classes for the younger Sisters. These Sisters 
follow, as far as possible, the courses of in- 
struction that would have been given them 
had they remained in the training school, and 
they have examinations at stated periods. 
Every teacher is required to forecast on 
Saturday her work for the coming week, and 
to submit her plan to the mistress of studies 
or to the Superior. 



242 The Education of Our Girls 



(( r 



'In many States the parish schools are 
visited by ecclesiastical supervisors, but In ad- 
dition to this the Sisters' schools have also the 
supervision Instituted by the supervisors of 
the order to which the teacher belongs. The 
various communities of each province are 
visited from time to time by the Sister super- 
visors appointed for upper and for lower 
grade work by the Provincial. These Sisters 
spend several days in each classroom while 
the Sister In charge gives a lesson in every 
branch she is expected to teach. Besides giv- 
ing private and general criticism of this work 
the supervisors give model lessons at the even- 
ing assembly of the community. 

" *The summer vacation is a time of study. 
Each Sister plans, or has planned for her, the 
courses she must pursue either by private 
study or in the regular classes that are formed 
for teachers, In the novitiate training school, 
or in the summer schools. These assemblies 
are held In large convents desirably located 
at various convenient points in the province. 
The best teachers of the order and, whenever 



Domestic Science 243 

necessary, professors from colleges or univer- 
sities, give courses of instruction extending 
through six or eight weeks. For example, 
our order held last summer, besides the novi- 
tiate school, six summer schools. Subjects 
suited to the needs of elementary and gram- 
mar grade teachers, academy and high school 
teachers, and teachers of music and drawing 
were treated, special attention being given in 
the course of instruction to methods of teaching. 
" With all these helps, a Sister who has 
any aptitude at all for the work must become 
a good teacher in a few years, even though 
she may not have had all the preliminary 
training that is judged necessary. Add to 
this the significant facts that Superiors have 
every opportunity for knowing the special ap- 
titudes as well as the deficiencies of their sub- 
jects, that they make a careful study of these 
aptitudes and, whenever possible, place each 
Sister where her talents will be developed and 
used to the best advantage while generous 
support and help will be given to her in those 
matters in which she is deficient. 



244 The Education of Our Girls 

"*The Sister herself , filled with the thought 
that she has consecrated her whole life to the 
sacred work of teaching, stirred by the desire 
to make herself worthy of this consecration 
and capable of doing her work well, eagerly 
accepts the opportunities for self-Improve- 
ment offered by her environment; she works 
with an earnestness and perseverance that can 
hardly be expected In the public school 
teacher, who has, as a general thing, adopted 
the profession of teaching primarily as a 
means of livelihood during the period Inter- 
vening between school days and marriage. 

" 'Finally, a fact already suggested, but 
worthy In Itself of emphatic notice, Is that the 
religious teacher here spoken of never stands 
alone or works alone; as a member of a well- 
organized community and a well-organized 
order she Is supported by the strength and re- 
sources of a whole body of educated women, 
all animated by the same spirit and working 
for the same ends.' " 

"Judging from this letter," said Miss 
Ruth, *'the sisterhood In question devotes a 



Domestic Science 245 

great deal of time and energy both to the 
normal training of its candidates and to the 
continuance of the professional studies of its 
teachers. But the important question is are 
they adjusting their teaching to the demands 
of the present social and economic condi- 
tions? The conservative element Is very 
strong in some of our teaching communities; 
this is particularly true of some of the oldest 
and the strongest of them. Extensive drill- 
ing in antique methods does not constitute a 
guarantee of good work. Many of the com- 
munities do not continue the professional 
study of their teachers, neither do they give 
them adequate preparatory training. I am 
not blaming them for this, I am simply stat- 
ing the facts as I know them. That the nor- 
mal school training furnished In some In- 
stances, at least. Is not of the right kind seems 
to be borne out by Sister Antonine In the 
article In the Bulletin to which reference has 
been made. May I read a few lines for you? 
*' 'Reference Is here made to the Ideal nor- 
mal school. Unfortunately, there Is another 



246 The Education of Our Girls 

kind where Instructors who are unchanging In 
their methods, who adhere painfully to old 
traditions, who have long since outlived their 
usefulness by Isolating themselves from the 
great educational movements, are neverthe- 
less placed In charge of our future teachers. 
Such directors of the mental life and growth 
of young aspirants stifle every new thought, 
kill outright every effort at originality. 
Their enthusiasm died an early death, easily 
traced to mental starvation; they have not 
kept In touch with the latest developments 
along educational lines ; they continue to teach 
the theories and methods In vogue when they 
themselves were under normal school Instruc- 
tion — perhaps a generation or two ago. 
There might be no evil results in pursuing 
such a course in law or in theology; but In 
pedagogy, the Injury done by such a system Is 
Incalculable.' " 

"Sister Antonlne's criticisms of non-pro- 
gressive normal schools," said Dr. Studevan, 
"applies to State normal schools quite as 
truly as they do to the normal schools In con- 



Domestic Science 247 

nection with the novitiates of our religious 
orders. Our sisterhoods, however, are labor- 
ing under a very great difficulty in this re- 
spect. The whole curriculum and method of 
our modern school has undergone many pro- 
found changes as a result of the abnormally 
rapid development in the physical sciences 
and as a result also of the fundamental 
changes that have been taking place in social 
and economic conditions. Now, the Sisters 
must have help in adjusting the training of 
their teachers to the new needs. Feeling this 
pressure, many of them have sent their candi- 
dates to non-Catholic universities and to 
State universities, from which all rehgion is 
banished. For some years the various 
religious habits of our teaching communities 
have been a marked feature in the audiences 
attending the summer courses at these insti- 
tutions. The result of this procedure, how- 
ever, is proving disastrous. Our Catholic 
girls, learning of the attendance of the Sisters 
at these institutions, take this fact as a suffi- 
cient guarantee that the institutions are in all 



248 The Education of Our Girls 

respects fit places for them to pursue their 
academic studies. The losses to religion In 
this way are likely to prove Incalculable In the 
near future. 

"Many of the communities, realizing this 
danger and remembering the Master's warn- 
ing, 'But he that shall scandalize one of thesQ 
little ones that believe In me, It were better 
for him that a millstone should be hanged 
about his neck, and that he should be 
drowned In the depth of the sea!' have re- 
fused to send their members to these Institu- 
tions. Of course they realize fully that there 
Is little danger to the Sisters, for their re- 
ligious life Is taken care of In their convent 
homes. And, then, too, the faculties of these 
Institutions are very careful not to give offence 
to the Sisters, for they know right well that 
the logic of facts will make the attendance 
of the Sisters at these universities the best pos- 
sible argument against the existence of Cath- 
olic schools and colleges. And, as a matter 
of fact, our Catholic youth of both sexes 
have been flocking to these Institutions In ever 



Domestic Science 249 

increasing numbers during the past few 
years. 

"These same communities have not ceased 
to hope for the time when their candidates 
will receive the best and most modern train- 
ing in Catholic teachers' colleges. And in the 
meanwhile the brightest of their members are 
enrolled in the correspondence courses in the 
pedagogical department of the Catholic Uni- 
versity. They have high ideals of what the 
training of the teacher should be and they 
will not rest content until the Catholic Uni- 
versity makes some adequate provision for 
their needs. This ideal is well set forth in 
Sister Antonlne's paper in this brief passage: 

" 'Those preparing for the position of 
teacher should be under the direction of 
specialists, the product of our best university 
training ; men keenly alive to the great Impor- 
tance of the noble work In question; steeped 
in the new methods of investigation; men 
fully aware of the possibilities of the science 
and art of education in the schoolroom; sym- 
pathetic to the struggle in every true teacher's 



250 The Education of Our Girls 

soul between the ideal and the real conditions 
that hold in modern school life; men reahzing 
fully the power In a school or in a community 
of even one live teacher thoroughly prepared 
for scientific work.' " 



CHAPTER XI 

The Woman^s College of the Future 

"Dr. Studevan/' said Mr. O'Brien, "we 
are waiting for you to appoint the evening for 
our parlor lecture." 

"Any time will suit me. How will next 
Friday evening do?" 

"Are there any objections to next Friday 
evening?" asked Mr. O'Brien. "If not, the 
motion is carried. Remember, each of you 
is to bring any of your friends who may be 
looking for an opportunity to do something 
of permanent value for the cause of Catholic 
education." 

"There are some phases of coeducation that 
I would like to have cleared up before your 
lecture, Doctor," said Professor Shannon. 
"That is, unless you intend to deal with them 
in your lecture. 

"Even if we grant the contention that 
woman needs training in needle work, domes- 



252 The Education of Our Girls 

tic science, the care of babies and several other 
subjects that find no place in a man's educa- 
tion, still I do not see why, with the elective 
system that now generally obtains in our uni- 
versities, this may not be accomplished, even 
though the institution be coeducational. Our 
young women need training in literature, 
physics, chemistry, biology, and in many other 
branches which are universally recognized as 
necessary parts of man's education. Why, 
therefore, should the boys and girls not meet 
in these classes and separate when it comes to 
a question of the studies which are peculiarly 
adapted to the needs of each sex?" 

"In looking over the files of the Indepen- 
dent the other day," said Dr. Studevan, "I 
found in the issue of February 12, 1903, an 
article by Henry Finck on 'Why Coeducation 
IS Losing Ground.' In this article he touches 
your question and incidentally lends confirma- 
tion to much of what I have been saying. Let 
me read a page for you. 

" 'When women began, some decades ago, 
to seek the higher education in considerable 



Woman's College of the Future 253 

numbers, nearly all of them Intended to be- 
come teachers or to compete with men other- 
wise. Therefore, it seemed a matter of 
course that they should receive the same 
training. . . . But at Bryn Mawr two-thirds 
of the students have no expectation of sup- 
porting themselves. In schools in general, 
especially the coeducational institutions which 
monopolize the West, the proportion of girls 
who expect to be supported by husbands is 
much greater still. Indeed, the census figures 
show that the country through ninety of every 
hundred women get married and this brings 
us to the principal reason why belief in coedu- 
cation is losing ground. Parents are asking 
themselves more and more frequently, "Shall 
our educational system continue to be adapted 
to the ten per cent, of the women who do not 
marry, or should it be adapted to the ninety 
per cent, who do marry?" This growing feel- 
ing against mixed schools would have swept 
many of them out of existence long ago were 
it not for the unfortunate fact that the 
separate colleges for women have not done 



254 The Education of Our Girls 

their full duty. They have so far failed to 
adapt their courses to the special needs of 
women who are destined to be wives, mothers, 
homemakers. . . . We may go further and 
say that in most of our educational institutions 
all the students are trained for fatherhood — 
the girls as well as the boys !' " 

"Apart from his startling climax, Mr. 
Finck seems to support my contention," said 
Professor Shannon. "If women's colleges 
have not adapted their courses to meet the 
special needs of women, they are open to all 
the objections which you have urged against 
coeducational institutions, while they lack the 
undoubted advantages that are offered by 
them." 

"That IS always the way with you. Shan- 
non, you run off with half-baked conclusions. 
Women's colleges are comparatively new in- 
stitutions, they are frequently hampered by 
want of financial support, particularly in the 
West, where they are wholly private, whereas 
the coeducational institutions of the West are 
part of the State system. 



Woman's College of the Future 255 

"But because women's colleges have not 
reached their full development up to the pres- 
ent Is a very poor reason for supposing that 
they shall not do so In the near future. All 
the logic of the situation Is on their side, and 
they have In themselves large possibilities of 
adjustment to woman's needs, which are not 
to be found In coeducational Institutions, how- 
ever powerful these latter may be from a finan- 
cial point of view." 

*'Mr. FInck was evidently not thinking of 
the colleges for women conducted by our sis- 
terhoods," said Miss Ruth. "Our convent 
schools have always aimed at fitting their 
pupils for domestic life. On a recent visit to 
one of our convent libraries I found a copy of 
the first edition of the *UrsulIne Rule.' The 
book was published in France something over 
two hundred years ago, and I was not a little 
surprised to find In It explicit directions for 
the training of their pupils in domestic science ; 
needlework, cooking, housekeeping, were all 
Included in the course. 

"Conditions have changed radically since 



256 The Education of Our Girls 

that time, but there is every reason to hope 
that the Institutions that were able to adjust 
their courses of instruction to the needs of the 
time In the past will be able to meet the new 
conditions with equal success. In the zeal 
and devotion of their members the sisterhoods 
have resources which far outweigh the su- 
perior financial backing of coeducational in- 
stitutions. 

*'No one who reads the paper on motor and 
manual training in the July Bulletin will have 
any misgivings about the adjustment of such 
colleges as St. Clara's to the needs of the 
hour. Let me read a brief passage from it. 

" 'Manual training cannot be neglected if 
the whole child Is to be educated. This is an 
accepted conclusion among educators, and one, 
too, which has been established beyond doubt 
both by argument and experiment. A general 
education in this line will have an important 
bearing on the pupil's future vocation and suc- 
cess In life. The mind and hand are trained 
together, and there Is thus begun a connecting 
link between the world of thought and that of 



Woman's College of the Future 257 

action. By Its means energies which might al- 
ways have remained latent are roused, Inter- 
ested and held. Through It result or should 
result aesthetic products of handicraft which 
satisfy even the spiritual wants of mankind. 
... In the school kitchen are learned lessons 
regarding hygiene and nutrition, and in the 
sewing room, lessons in care, thrift, economy, 
and neatness. ... In fact, It dignifies manual 
labor, and makes education democratic rather 
than aristocratic y for it attends to the needs 
of the many rather than to the culture of the 
few. If this branch were properly taught 
everywhere, the schools would no longer be 
blamed for increasing discontent and for 
merely cultivating capacity to feel wants, with- 
out providing means for satisfying them.' 

"But to return to Mr. FInck's article, what 
kind of specific training does he advocate for 
girls?" 

"There is more of the spirit of true 
progress," said Dr. Studevan, "in the little 
paper which you have just been reading than 
In anything that is contained In Mr. FInck's 



258 The Education of Our Girls 

article. Nevertheless, his thoughts are worth 
attending to and his suggestions are along 
practical lines. He would have the teachers 
taught the kindergarten system; he would 
have all our girls trained in the duties of a 
nurse, in hygiene, and sanitation in general, in 
cookery with all its kindred branches, in mar- 
keting, food adulterants, and gastronomy in 
general. 

'Whether or not we agree with Mr.Finck's 
ideas as to what should constitute the training 
of a woman who is destined to be a home- 
maker, it seems evident to me that even in 
such branches as literature, geography, chem- 
istry, and biology, which should form part of 
the education of both boys and girls, the point 
of departure and the source of interest are dif- 
ferent for the two sexes, and hence they can 
be taught more effectively to each sex 
separately. 

"I have expressed my views on this sub- 
ject several times, but it occurs to me that 
Miss Ruth has been asking questions and pro- 
posing difficulties instead of giving us her 



Woman's College of the Future 259 

ideas concerning the education that is best 
fitted to meet the needs of our young women." 

"Now you've said It," said Mr. O'Brien. 
"She has been diligently gleaning the field, 
and it is about time she paid her tribute." 

*'I am not quite clear on the subject," re- 
plied Miss Ruth. "I have been trying very 
hard to get my ideas straightened out. I am 
responsible for the education of my little 
niece, who is now twelve years old, and I must 
soon come to a practical conclusion. I don't 
yet know where to educate her. 

"I want her when she leaves school to have 
certain ideals. I want her to have a woman's 
heart that will Impel her to help a brother or 
a sister in need without too much counting of 
the cost. I want her to have a sufficiently level 
head to keep her heart from leading her into 
anything very imprudent. I want her to have 
a wholesome self-respect. I want her to know 
that others are not necessarily wrong and fit 
subjects for unkind criticism just because they 
do not think and speak and act just as she and 
her set do. I want her always to speak the 



26o The Education of Our Girls 

truth. I want her to be able to speak and 
write her mother tongue, at least, correctly 
and easily, and then know when to keep still, 
and when to talk. I want her to enjoy good 
literature and beauty In all Its forms. I want 
her to take an Interest in affairs outside of her 
immediate duties. I would want her to be a 
good housekeeper. I want her to know the 
foundation principles governing the physical, 
mental, and moral up-bringing of children. I 
want her to have a cheerful disposition, a 
strong sense of humor, gracious manners, and 
the fear of the Lord, that is the beginning of 
wisdom. 

**As I think of It, her ideals should be in 
three particulars, at least, those of Chaucer's 
Very parfait, gentle knight;' she should love 
*truthe and honour, freedom and courtelsye.' 
Freedom Is a magnificent word, there Is 
a large fascination about It, perhaps because 
the state It expresses Is unattainable; but I 
reckon my little girl would better be taught 
from the beginning to call it service. And so, 
you see, her characteristics are to conform in 



Woman*s College of the Future 261 

three parts to the ideal masculine. Where 
shall she be educated? I don't know. I 
should want to keep her at home until her 
ideals were formed — well sprouted anyway. 
What would you do with her, Mrs. O'Brien?" 

"Mary is attending the Sisters' school, and 
Miles and I are delighted with her progress. 
When she graduates from the academy we 
hope to send her to a woman's college con- 
ducted by the Sisters. I would be afraid to 
trust my little girl anywhere else. I want her 
to spend all her school days in an atmosphere 
that is permeated with Catholic thought and 
feeling. Whether she becomes a Sister or not 
I want the sweet, devoted lives of the Sisters 
to exert the fullest possible influence on the 
formation of her character. 

"We have not yet decided on the college to 
which we will send her; there are many 
things to be considered. We want her to re- 
ceive a thorough training in domestic science 
and in all those subjects which will help to 
make her future home happy, and we would 
like to place her In a college where she would 



262 The Education of Our Girls 

enjoy some social advantages. A girl during 
her college years should learn to meet men 
and to adjust herself to their point of view." 

"But aren't women's colleges," said Profes- 
sor Shannon, "doing what President Harper 
set out to do in Chicago University? Aren't 
they teaching women the same things that are 
taught to men and teaching them in the same 
way?" 

"At the State University which I attended," 
said Miss Geddes, "there was practical segre- 
gation, because the men and women seldom 
selected the same subjects; yet there was 
enough mingling of the sexes to give the girls 
something of the broader, more impersonal 
view of a question that a manly man takes. 
As far as my observation goes, I like the prod- 
uct of coeducation better than that of the 
woman's college." 

"I brought along Munsey^s Magazine for 
February, 1906, containing the article by 
G. Stanley Hall on coeducation that was re- 
ferred to the other night," said Dr. Studevan. 
"That the presidents of two great universities, 



Woman's College of the Future 263 

such as Clark and Leland Stanford, should 
make coeducation the subject of magazine ar- 
ticles is in itself sufficiently indicative of the 
present widespread interest in the subject. 
Some passages in President Hall's article 
cover ground that has already been gone over 
in our discussion. Let me read a few extracts 
for you. 

" *The thirty years' war which women have 
conducted for educational opportunities equal 
to those of men has now, for the most part, 
been won, or is sure soon to be won, all along 
the line. It was a holy war, and will forever 
mark an epoch not only in the history of 
woman, but of civilization. There are few 
men now living so conservative as to wish to 
take any backward step. The educational 
movement has been accompanied by a great 
social movement that has freed women from 
many gross limitations and opened a new 
world of opportunities and influences. It has 
had its great leaders, and even its specialists, 
as well as its literature, its epochs, and its 
dramatic incidents. Measured by about all 



264 The Education of Our Girls 

the pedagogic standards that can be named, 
women have abundantly proven their intel- 
lectual equality with men, whom, in most 
high schools and colleges, and in many if not 
most subjects, they actually outrank. In all 
this I both believe and rejoice. 

" *It is not yet so well recognized that we 
have reached a new educational stage, and 
that the time is now ripe for important new 
departures. First, equality of opportunity 
had to be attained, and ability to utilize 
it practically demonstrated ; but now that this 
has been done, the next step of differentiation 
is in order. No less momentous changes im- 
pend, but all the problems are of a different 
order and in a very different field, and their 
solution will require the labors of new leaders 
working by new and far more special methods. 

" *The old war assumed equality, If not 
identity, of abilities between the two sexes, 
and this was genetically and strategically wise. 
The new movement is based upon sexual dif- 
ferences, not identities.' 

"The whole article is well worth our study, 



Woman's College of the Future 265 

but his statement, quoted here the other even- 
ing, that ten years after graduation fifty per 
cent, of our college women remain unmarried, 
is sufficient proof of his main thesis that the 
college education of men and women must in 
the future be conducted along different lines 
and with special reference to the needs of each 
sex and to their special functions in society. 
After pointing out the menace to the public 
welfare in the feminization of education, he 
goes on to say : 

" 'The bottom facts, however, from which 
we can never get away, are that men and 
women differ in their bodily constitution, their 
organs, their biological and their physiologi- 
cal functions. This divergence is most 
marked and sudden in the pubescent period, 
when by almost world-wide consent boys and 
girls separate more or less, and, during this 
most critical period of inception, lead lives 
more or less apart for a few years, until the 
ferment of body and mind, which results in 
the maturity of the functions then born and 
culminating in nubility, has done its work. At 



266 The Education of Our Girls 

twelve or fourteen, brothers and sisters de- 
velop Interests more independent of each other 
than before; their home occupations, plays, 
games, tastes differ. We should respect this 
law, and not forget that motherhood is a very 
different thing from fatherhood, so that 
neither sex should copy or set patterns for the 
other, but each should play its part in the 
great harmony. 

" *So, too, civilization differentiates. In 
savagery, men and women are more alike in 
their physical structure, and often In their oc- 
cupations. But with real progress the sexes 
diverge. Among primitive races there is 
sometimes very little difference In the habits of 
industry or the form of the body to dis- 
tinguish the sexes; but, as Professor Hyatt 
used to urge, differentiation and cIvIHzatlon 
are practically synonymous, and equahzatlon 
means retrogression. Education should push 
sex distinctions to their uttermost, make boys 
more manly and girls more womanly. . . . 
Sex tension Is one of the subtlest and most 
potent of all psychological agencies. Each 



Woman's College of the Future 267 

ought to find the presence of the other the 
tonic and stimulus to its very highest and best 
achievements, but incessant and prolonged 
famiharity wears down this idealizing influ- 
ence to the dull monotony of the daily routine/ 

''Stanley Hall is the best known authority 
in the country on the psychology of adoles- 
cence, and on this account alone his view will 
necessarily carry great weight, but he does not 
rely on his psychological preeminence; he 
backs up his statements with an array of facts 
gleamed from the experiment in coeducation 
that we are making on so large a scale." 

"Other college men do not think as poorly 
of woman as Stanley Hall seems to," said 
Miss Geddes. "I have clipped out this news- 
paper account of Mr. Meekins' address to the 
alumnae of the College of Notre Dame, of 
Maryland. Let me read it for you. 

" 'Mr. Lynn R. Meekins, who delivered 
the address of the day, said that the one thing 
shown most forcibly by literature, past and 
present, is man's failure to recognize the pos- 
sibilities of woman. That is to be changed. 



268 The Education of Our Girls 

Man has written the books, and they tell of 
man. There is not a real history of the world. 
There Is lacking particularly a good history 
of America. We are sadly in need of some- 
thing that will approach a historical sketch of 
our own State. 

" 'It is impossible to get from what we call 
history even a fairly good account of woman's 
work and her relation to human advancement. 
She simply hasn't received the credit for what 
she has done. That paragon of modesty, 
man, has taken It all. Occasionally, conscious 
of his sins, he has burst forth in eulogy upon 
the glory of womanhood. But eulogies do not 
count, except as epitaphs and at funerals. 
What is needed is clear acknowledgment of 
woman's part In human affairs. 

" 'The future woman will marry and she 
will not be the sweet silent partner who will 
believe In an eight-hour day for her husband 
and a sixteen-hour day for herself. She will 
not consider the highest joy of life the cook- 
ing of a Sunday dinner for a large number of 
her husband's friends and relatives. The fu- 



Woman's College of the Future 269 

ture woman is going to make more of her 
time, to fill it with effort along intelligent 
lines. She is going to systematize the home 
and solve the problems of the home. 

" 'Behind every one of the moral uplifts 
which we have known in recent years has been 
the moral power of the women. Whatever 
woman has done, whatever she is doing, what- 
ever she may do, there is no service greater 
or better or more beautiful than the help 
which she gives and which compels from such 
a writer as Rudyard Kipling the confession 
that "when a man does good work out of all 
proportion to his pay, in seven cases out of nine 
there is a woman at the back of his virtue." ' 

"Nevertheless, we should not forget," said 
the Professor, "that David Starr Jordan, 
President of Leland Stanford University, and 
ex- President of the National Teachers' Asso- 
ciation, defends the opposite view in Munsey^s 
for March, 1906. He claims that coeduca- 
tion has been tried and that it has proved an 
unqualified success in the West." 

"That depends on what he understands as 



270 The Education of Our Girls 

success,'^ replied Dr. Studevan. *'In his own 
university the number of women was limited 
by its constitution to five hundred, and it is 
said by many who are in a position to know 
that this constitutional provision saved Leland 
Stanford from becoming practically a woman's 
college. If the number of women attending 
Western universities Is a proof of the success 
of coeducation, then President Jordan is cor- 
rect. The whole question of Coeducation ver- 
sus the Higher Education of Women re- 
solves Itself, therefore, into the question of 
what constitutes the proper Ideal for a college 
woman. This theme formed the subject of 
Dr. Pace's address to the graduates of Trinity 
College in June, 1904, and it was published 
in part In Vol. II. of the Report of the Com- 
missioner of Education for that year (page 
2426) . I can not do better than read a short 
extract for you to close this discussion. 

*' The Ideal of the college woman, as we 
understand it, is threefold. In the first place, 
the college woman Is one who has received 
much, she Is one who during her collegiate 



Woman's College of the Future 27 i 

experience has come to know the greatest 
minds of the past, who has dwelt with the 
thoughts and the deeds and the aims of the 
greatest minds of antiquity; she is one who, 
perhaps, may not know by direct experience 
the world for which she is preparing, but she 
is one who has learned of a greater world, the 
world from which we draw our culture, our 
refinement, our civiHzation, and our religion, 
and because during these four years the col- 
lege woman has been associated spiritually 
with the great minds of that past, she looks 
out upon the world of the present from 
a higher point of view, from a point of view 
that is more spiritual, that is deeper, and in 
a certain sense more filled with the practical 
ideas of solid wisdom. 

" 'The college woman, moreover, is one who 
has kept much, one who in dealing with the 
treasures of the past has not merely handled 
them and set them aside, but who has stored 
up in her own mind wisdom, in her own heart 
strength, so that there within her being there 
is created a sanctuary to which in her thoughts 



272 The Education of Our Girls 

she may retire, she may withdraw from the 
clamor and distractions and disturbance of 
the world and find within herself the source 
of her strength. The college woman who 
has been really educated along the right lines 
does not go beyond herself, beyond the sphere 
of her own activities to find her pleasures, to 
find her consolations, to find her strength — for 
education. If It means anything, means that 
there has been created within the mind the 
source of genuine pleasure, of best consola- 
tion, and of greatest strength. 

" The college woman Is one who has not 
only received much and kept much, but who 
is able to give and who gives much. It Is a 
false Idea to think that the woman educated 
in college Is one who has learned to live among 
books alone. Is one who treasures her culture, 
her refinement, for herself alone; but at the 
proper time and In the proper circumstances, 
guided by that Inner Instinct which comes 
from culture and education, the college 
woman Is able to go forth as through the gates 
of the sanctuary to dispense upon others the 



Woman's College of the Future 273 

blessings which she herself has received. The 
college woman, because she is cultured, does 
not thereby look down upon those who have 
not had the same advantages; on the contrary, 
culture means a broadening out of her sym- 
pathies, she is ready to enter into every good 
work and help those who strive to uplift 
others ; consequently wherever we find a genu- 
ine college woman we find that she is the 
medium, the channel of communication, be- 
tween all the culture, all the spiritual inheri- 
tance of the race, and the entire race as it 
exists at present. 

*' 'Now, if that be, in a general way, the 
idea of the college woman, what shall we say 
of the college woman in our country? Are 
there not here conditions which define in a 
special way the sphere and the work of the 
educated woman? We have only to glance 
back, I will not say over our political history, 
but over our educational history, to see that 
by the very growth of our institutions there 
has been prepared a special task for those who 
receive collegiate education, and why? Be- 



274 The Education of Our Girls 

cause in this country, by the very fact that 
there is a larger liberty, by the very fact that 
it is a democracy, there is greater call for that 
restraint, that self-control, that balance of 
thought and action, which is implied in college 
education, and because in our democratic 
country women have a larger opportunity than 
in any other country to exercise those powers 
which are peculiarly their own. It is true 
with this democratic spirit America has pro- 
gressed as no other country has during these 
last two or three centuries. We were accus- 
tomed to say, and educators even up to the 
last few years have been accustomed to regard, 
that in the American life there were too many 
tendencies of a material sort, that progress for 
us meant simply advance in wealth and in the 
development of material resources; but to-day 
it is fairly recognized that alongside of this 
material progress, nay, more, that by dint of 
this material progress, there is also progress of 
a higher kind. The intellectual progress of 
this country is much more conspicuous to-day 
than it was a hundred years ago, and hence 



Woman's College of the Future 275 

the woman who Is to take part in the national 
life must be a woman prepared to recognize 
what Is good In American life, and at the same 
time to distinguish It from any tendencies that 
might make for evil.' " 



CHAPTER XII 

The Homemakers of the Future 

"Ladies and gentlemen/' said Mr. O'Brien, 
"Mrs. O'Brien insists that an introduction of 
the speaker of the evening is de rigeur, and, 
being a product of modern education, I never 
question my wife's judgment on matters of 
this kind; nevertheless, I find myself at an 
utter loss for an appropriate speech on this 
occasion. I remember hearing some one say 
the other evening that the college-bred woman 
of to-day has a delightful habit of writing her 
husband's speeches for him, and so, in my sore 
need, I appealed to my wife for help, and she 
informed me that an introduction should 
always tell who the speaker is and what he is 
going to talk about. 

"I believe you all know Dr. Studevan quite 
as well as I do — I was going to say that you 
admired him more, but, on second thought, I 
believe that is not possible. However, were 



The Homemakers of the Future 277 

he not present, I might be able to tell you a 
few things about him which you do not know, 
but his well-known modesty deprives me of 
this opportunity of arousing the envy of his 
many friends who have honored us with their 
presence here to-night. 

"At dinner, a little while ago, I asked him 
what he was going to talk about this evening, 
and he answered by relating an Incident that 
occurred at the rectory the other day. The 
assistant, who is a modest young man with a 
good deal of common sense, came to the 
Doctor for advice. 'Doctor,' said he, 'how is 
It; you don't seem to give any time to 
the preparation of your sermons and yet every- 
body comes to hear you, and they remember 
everything you say. Now, I write out my 
sermons and work hard over them all week, 
and yet I don't seem to make any Impression 
on the congregation.' That's just it,' said the 
Doctor. 'When you are writing your ser- 
mon Monday morning the devil Is looking 
over your shoulder and, when he has learned 
what you are going to say, he goes around 



278 The Education of Our Girls 

through the parish preparing the people 
against you. But when I appear in the pulpit 
on Sunday morning the devil himself doesn't 
know what I'm going to say.' So, you see, 
there is nothing for me to do but to present 
Dr. Studevan to you, and he himself will tell 
you what he is going to talk about." 

*'My dear friends," said Dr. Studevan, 
*'it is, indeed, a great pleasure for me to meet 
you here to-night. The task before me, how- 
ever, is much more difficult than the preaching 
of one of those impromptu sermons to which 
our genial host has just referred. It is one 
thing to move along with the sublime truths 
of religion and morality in the unchanging 
currents of the Church's teaching, and quite 
another to hold an even keel in addressing an 
audience like this on so tentative a subject as 
coeducation and the higher education of 
woman, where there are so many uncertain 
currents of thought and when one knows not 
from what quarter of the heavens he may en- 
counter a sudden gust of feeling. 

"We are entering into a phase of civiliza- 



The Homemakers of the Future 279 

tlon in which everything is new and strange. 
It is a world filled with wonders. It is a 
world where the impossible happens every 
hour. Invention has driven man and woman 
forth from the home of the old days, where, 
animated with a common interest, they labored 
together and spent their lives in loving com- 
panionship. In this new world man and 
woman have been enticed away from the 
bosom of nature, where they had so long en- 
joyed freedom and peace, protection and unin- 
terrupted companionship, and they are caught 
up in the vast wheels of modern industry, 
where they eat the bread of discontent. Hus- 
band is separated from wife, child from 
parent, sister from brother, and each and all 
fill out the weary hours of toil beneath the eye 
of a taskmaster who has no power to minister 
to their needs, who has no heart of mercy, 
who has no care for their soul's salvation. 

"In the social confusion resulting from the 
industrial revolution through which we are 
passing, men and women sometimes become 
bewildered and are found fighting against 



280 The Education of Our Girls 

their own best interests, regarding themselves 
as competitors and losing sight of the fact 
that their interests must forever remain in- 
separable. 

"Older than modern civilization, more an- 
cient even than the law which compels man to 
eat his bread in the sweat of his brow, is the 
decree of the Author of hfe which placed 
woman by man*s side and made her flesh of 
his flesh and bone of his bone, which made the 
twain no longer two, but two in one flesh. 

"The industrial progress of the present 
generation has destroyed the industrial home 
of the past, where husband and wife labored 
and loved and lived their own childhood and 
youth over again in the children that grew up 
about them. The young woman of to-day 
too frequently graduates from the college de- 
signed to meet man's needs with a defeminized 
ideal of home. The home of her dreams 
throbs with intellectual life and is filled with 
masculine ambitions; it is free from domestic 
cares and it is undisturbed by the voices of 
children. But it is not good for man to be 



The Homemakers of the Future 281 

alone, nor for woman either; the life of each 
is incomplete without the other. They are 
complements of each other, not duplicates. 
They can not be separated and live. The 
deepest law of their natures makes their in- 
terests identical and renders it forever impos- 
sible for them to be rivals or competitors. 

"Man and woman must labor together in 
building a new home to meet the conditions of 
the strange new world in which they find 
themselves. The home of the past was indus- 
trial; the home of the future must be cultural. 
The new organization of industry has resulted 
in lengthened hours of leisure that should be 
spent at home in the pursuit of the things of 
the mind. The companionship in the work of 
their hands that husband and wife have lost 
they must find again in the cultivation of their 
minds and hearts. In the past children grew 
up beneath the sheltering roof of the home; 
their conduct was governed throughout life 
by local custom and family tradition. 

"The home of the future must develop high 
ideals In the minds of the children; it must 



282 The Education of Our Girls 

form their characters In such strength that, at 
an early age, they will be able to face alone 
all the wild storms of temptation and passion. 
The home of the future must breathe a charm 
so potent that It will gather to Its bosom each 
evening the dispersed and weary tollers of the 
day. The home of the future must be the 
sanctuary of life and the dwelling-place of 
love ; the mind must find In It room to grow in 
all the realms of truth and beauty ; its atmos- 
phere must be that of refinement and culture; 
beauty must cover It with her mantle and cour- 
age must protect It with his shield. 

"Man Is tunneling the mountain and bridg- 
ing the ocean; he Is ransacking the bowels of 
the earth for its treasures ; he Is converting the 
inaccessible wildernesses Into busy marts of 
trade ; he Is banishing the thorn from the cac- 
tus and the seed from the grape and the 
orange. But woman must create the home of 
the future. She must preserve in It the sacred 
fires of religion and culture. Through It she 
must save man from materialism and from 
the worship of the golden calf. She must 



The Homemakers of the Future 283 

build a home in which he will find rest from 
his toil, consolation in his sorrow, strength 
to battle with temptations, courage in the 
midst of disaster, and companionship in the 
highest aspirations of his soul. 

''If she fails in this, all her other achieve- 
ments are valueless. It will profit nothing that 
she should explore the hitherto undiscovered 
regions of natural truth, that she should write 
books or paint pictures, that she should help 
man to build more bridges, or to construct 
more high buildings, to reclaim desert places, 
or to accumulate more millions. 

"Of what value are all these things without 
a home in which children may grow in 
strength and beauty? If the race were to end 
with this generation, 'think you we should 
move another hand ? The ships would rot in 
the harbors; the grain would rot in the 
ground; should we paint pictures, write books, 
make music, hemmed in by that onward 
creeping sea of silence?' 'What doth it profit 
a man to gain the whole world if he lose his 
own soul?' 



284 The Education of Our Girls 

"What education shall a woman receive to 
enable her to build securely a home that will 
meet the present social and economic condi- 
tions? The inadequacy of the training that 
fitted her for the home of the past is at once 
apparent. The lines along which her educa- 
tion shall be conducted must be determined by 
her nature and by the work that awaits her. 
She must be enabled to retain her place by 
man's side in his intellectual development. 

"The progress of science that has so trans- 
formed the outer world must, in her hands, 
bring about a similar transformation in the 
home. Manual labor must be transformed 
and lifted to a higher plane by a knowledge 
of domestic science. The hours that are thus 
saved from toil must be spent in the adorn- 
ment of the home, in the pursuit of literature 
and art, and in the wider intellectual and 
moral interests that are shaping the course of 
advancing civilization. 

"Woman must understand the forces that 
are playing upon the unfolding lives of her 
children and the environment into which they 



The Homemakers of the Future 285 

must enter on reaching maturity so that she 
may wisely preside over their physical, mental, 
and moral upbringing. 

"It is quite evident that no education can 
be too high or too good for woman. But her 
education must be a development of all that 
is best in her own nature. An attempt to mold 
her into the likeness of man must always fail, 
since their natures differ as profoundly as does 
their work in the world. All such attempts 
leave undeveloped in woman those qualities on 
which her real success depends. 

"It is true that, owing to present economic 
conditions, most women must labor for some 
years away from the confines of home before 
they are permitted to build homes of their 
own. But even here woman's work and woman's 
sphere in the industrial world are beginning 
to be sharply defined. Those years between 
school days and marriage, which woman is so 
frequently compelled to spend in the school- 
room, the office, the shop, or the factory, help 
to give her an intimate knowledge of the outer 
world which will serve her well in the future 



2 86 The Education of Our Girls 

by enabling her, as nothing else could do, to 
understand the cares and the hardships of hus- 
band and children who spend their days in 
the modern industrial arena. 

"What schools shall undertake the educa- 
tion of the home-makers of the future? 
Surely, not men's colleges, surely, not coedu- 
cational institutions, whose curricula, whose 
spirit and methods were all framed in view 
of man's nature and man's needs. Woman 
must work out her own development. 
Women's colleges must be developed along 
the lines demanded by woman's nature and 
woman's work in the world. 

"As might be expected from her history in 
the past, the Catholic Church will be the 
guide, the counselor, and the unfailing support 
of woman In her struggle to adjust herself to 
the new demands. The attitude of the Catho- 
lic Church toward education was voiced 
by his Excellency, Monslgnor DIomede Fal- 
conlo, the Apostolic Delegate, in his address 
at Mount St. Agnes the other day. He said; 

" 'The Catholics of the United States have 



The Homemakers of the Future 287 

recognized the important fact that If they de- 
sire to foster In the souls of their children love 
and veneration for their holy religion and 
sentiments of respect and obedience toward 
the law of the land, they must have their chil- 
dren educated In a religious atmosphere. 
Hence, they have spared no sacrifice In order 
to have Catholic schools In almost every par- 
ish and in every locality where the number of 
Catholics justified the erection and guaranteed 
the support of a Catholic school. 

'' 'Besides parochial schools, in the course 
of time a great number of colleges and acad- 
emies have also been erected for the superior 
education of youth. Truly, I may say that a 
colossal work has been accomplished by the 
Catholics of the United States for the Chris- 
tian education of our people; a work which 
calls for admiration and which deserves our 
gratitude and our encouragement. . . . 

" 'Permit me to observe that Institutions 
for higher education have now become a 
necessity In order to complete properly and to 
crown, as it were, the vast system of Catholic 



288 The Education of Our Girls 

education which was so providentially estab- 
lished in this country. For we must under- 
stand it to be of the highest importance that 
the system of Christian education which has 
been introduced in the elementary schools be 
progressively continued in the higher classes 
in the academy, the college, and finally in the 
university, in order that Catholic education 
may be productive of its beneficial influence 
in all its fulness. 

'' 'Higher education will prove profitable 
not only to men, but also to women. Hence, 
we cannot restrict superior education to either 
sex, since it is by its very nature destined to 
extend its powerful influence to all the mem- 
bers of the social body — to each according to 
his capacity and condition in life. As regards 
the superior education of women, I beg to say 
that the philosophy of those who argue that 
no particular attention should be paid to their 
higher education is erroneous and unjust. 
For if a superior education is useful to men, 
why should it not be useful to women also, 
since they are endowed with the same nature 



The Homemakers of the Future 289 

and the same capabllites for a higher Intellec- 
tual and spiritual betterment? Nay, taking 
into consideration the great Influence which 
woman exerts, either directly or Indirectly, In 
every state of life and position In society, the 
necessity of her education must be acknowl- 
edged by all who have at heart the welfare of 
the family and the good of society. A wise 
writer justly observes that If we wish to know 
the political and moral condition of a State, 
we must ask what rank women hold In It. 
Their Influence embraces the whole of 
life. 

*' 'Be on your guard, therefore, that the at- 
mosphere of the world contrasted with the at- 
mosphere of the convent does not prove fatal. 
Modern society Is rated by material success, 
seduced by sensual pleasure. We need women 
of strong moral character, who can withstand 
the seductions that flatter the senses. We 
need cultured women, whose culture does 
not divorce them from duty, whose life Is 
a force for truth and an example for all 
time.' 



290 The Education of Our Girls 

"If our Catholic women are to retain their 
sweetness and refinement, they must be edu- 
cated by women in schools for women and 
along the lines demanded by woman's nature. 
If they are to remain faithful children of the 
Church and models of civic and social virtue 
to the women of the nation, their education 
must be completed in distinctively Catholic 
schools. All that is finest and sweetest and 
noblest in woman withers and dies in coedu- 
cational universities from which Jesus Christ 
and the saving truths of His Gospel are ban- 
ished. 

"But if our sisterhoods are to develop 
women's colleges and help to solve the many 
pressing problems confronting the home- 
makers of the future, provision must be 
made for the adequate training of the Sisters. 
Here, under the shadow of the Catholic Uni- 
versity, there will arise within a few years a 
Catholic Teachers' College for women, to 
which the various teaching orders will send 
their most gifted members to receive the high- 
est training that the age affords and to carry 



The Homemakers of the Future 291 

back with them to their several communities a 
knowledge of the latest developments in 
science and of the most approved methods of 
teaching." 



INDEX 



Addams, Jane, 127, 178, 

180. 
Adjustment of school to 

social conditions, 127. 
American woman, the, 69, 

168, 170. 
Antonine, Sister, 236. 

and the professional 

training of teachers, 

245-249. 
Apostolic Delegate, 286- 

291. 
on education of women, 

286. 
Associated Charities, 175. 



B 

Bachelors and compulsory 

marriage, 188. 
Bachelor Girl, the, 186, 

187, 201, 204, 219. 
and the Old Maid, 189, 

190. 
social service of, 203, 

204. 
Balmes on the elevation of 

woman, 142, 143. 



Catholic parents and re- 
ligious vocations, 138, 

139. 

Catholic students at non- 
Catholic colleges, 248. 

Catholic schools and the 
education of women, 
290. 



Catholic schools, efficiency 

of, II. 
sacrifices in support of, 

287. 
Catholic University, need 

of, 192-105. 
Teachers' College for 

women at, 238, 290. 
and the unification of 

Catholic schools, 238. 
Correspondence courses 

given in, 249. 
Charity, Sisters of, 138, 139. 
organized, 175, 176. 
and the religious orders, 

176. 
visitor, 173-176. 
Chicago University, 18. 
Children, 47, 48. 

unlikeness of, 47-54. 
development of natural 

traits of, 48. 
coeducation for, 59. 
Christ and the elevation of 

woman, 143, 144, 
Christianity, and the voca- 
tion to social service, 

140. 
and elevation of woman, 

141. 
Church, the Catholic, and 

the education of 

woman, 170. 
and differentiation of 

social functions, 160. 
and the elevation of 

woman, 172. 
and adjustment to social 

conditions, 174. 
and education, 286, 287. 



294 



Index 



Claim, the social, 125. 

the family, 157. 
Coeducation, 24, 25, 31, 33, 

46, 50, 251. 
experiment in, 114, 125. 
Plato's view of, 115, 

121. 
and social adjustment, 

128. 
and social claim, 130, 

167. 
and Christianity, 138. 
and the college man, 

191. 
and the elective system, 

252. 
losing ground, 252-255. 
success in the West, 

269, 270. 
and marriage, 59, 67, 

72, 80, 83. 
and divorce, 59. 
and health, 40, 41, 42, 

different views concern- 
ing, 7- 
and the Catholic parent, 

9- 
a natural institution, 

31- 
in elementary schools, 

57-59. 

the failure of, 67, 128. 

and the higher educa- 
tion of woman, 103, 
278-291. 

advantages of, 8, 34, 35, 

. 36, Z7, 59. 
disadvantages of, 8, 9, 
94, 95, 221. 
College for women, 8, 251. 

graduate, 158. 
College education a neces- 
sity to woman, 42. 



College education and mar- 
riage, T^i, 79, 216, 265. 

College woman, 270-275. 

Competition between the 
sexes, 38, 39, 102, 
107, 109, III, 190, 
191, 195-98. 

Contention and discussion, 

178. 
Contrast, principle of, in 

art, 55. 
in nature, 47, 55, 56. 
in life, 55. 
the source of creative 

activity, 56. 
its value in social inter- 
course, 56, 57, 64. 
in married life, 57. 
necessary to intellectual 

activity of children, 

60, 63. 
and the law of imita- 
tion, 60. 
in the grading of school 

children, 54, 59, 60, 

61. 
among men, 47. 
Convent schools and the 

education of women, 

144. 
and the training of 

home-builders, 185, 

231. 
Curtis, W. A., 190, 197. 



D 

Development of the sexes, 
81. 
and struggle, 155. 
Development of women 
and coeducational in- 
stitutions, 172, 173. 
and men's colleges, 173. 



Index 



295 



Development of women and 
the Christian relig- 
ion, 172, 173. 
Differentiation of social 
function, 160. 
and progress, 121, 124. 
St. Paul's views on, 131. 
Differentiation of the 
sexes, 265. 
progress of civilization, 
266. 
Divorce and late marriage, 

74- 

Domestic science, its place 
in woman's educa- 
tion, 211, 213, 219, 
220, 227, 261, 284. 

Domestic service, 198. 

Dupanloup, Mgr,, and the 
individuality of the 
pupil, 48. 



E 
Early marriage, 72, 74, 75, 

78, 82. 
and higher education, 

84, 86. 
Education, the aim of, 46, 

94, 108, 120, 167, 203, 

207, 221. 
and courtship, dj, ^2. 
in Germany, 84. 
in America, 84. 
ideal for woman, 129. 
and the development of 

vocations, 155, 162. 
and social service, 163, 

171. 

of wives and mothers, 
186, 210, 229. 
Educational methods, re- 
adjustment of, no, 
126. 



Elective system and coedu- 
cation, 252. 

Engelmann, Dr., 214. 

Ethical standards, the clash 
of, 173. 



Falconio, Mgr. Diomede, 
on education, 286. 

Family claim and the so- 
cial claim, 129, 157. 

Finck, Dr. Henry, on co- 
education, 252. 



Gibbons, James Cardinal, 

7-12, 46, 47. 
Goggin, Catherine, 23. 
Gospel of Christ, gospel of 

mammon, 76, 113. 
Gospel of mammon, and 

marriage, 'J2, yy. 
Grading school children, 

49, 52, 6z. 
modification of present 

system, 65. 
and social laminae, 65. 



H 

Haley, Margaret, 23, 178. 
Hall, G. Stanley, 216. 

and coeducation, 262. 
Heredity and woman's lack 

of initiative, 29. 
Higher education of 
woman, 42, 288. 
and marriage, 79, 97, 

208, 214, 217. 
and man's colleges. 171. 
Historical argument for 
coeducation, 126. 



296 



Index 



Home, and the school, 50, 
158. 
solidarity of, 78. 
dispersal of its mem- 
bers, 78. 
and the factory, 225. 
of the past, 279. 
of the present, 278-280. 
of the future, 281-285. 
the defeminized, 280. 
Home-makers of the fu- 
ture, 276, 285. 
Huxley, Thomas, 56, 154. 
Individuality of pupil, 64. 
Cardinal G i b b o n s' 

view of, 47. 
Dupanloup's view of, 
48. 

I 

Imitation in mental life of 
children, 60. 
and the religious dress, 
161. 



Jerome, Jerome K., 57. 

Jesus Christ the model 
teacher, 48. 

Jordan, David Starr, on co- 
education, 263, 269. 



Late marriage, 72, 75. 
and divorce, 74. 
and the gospel of mam- 
mon, 72. 
Law of progress, 98. 
Leadership, the penalty of, 

100. 
Liberty, the child's right 
to, 48. 



Life, ideals of, 70, 72. 

plastic period of, yz, 78. 
Little Sisters of the Poor, 
139. 

M 
Man and woman allies, 102. 
opposed to woman's 

rights, 18. 
vanity of, 27. 
in literature, 71. 
in art, 71. 
in religion, 70. 
and woman not dupli- 
cates, 94. 
selfishness of, 161. 
conceit of, 268. 
Manual labor, 284. 
Marriage and the higher 
education of woman, 
97. 
and coeducation, 67, 80. 
failure of late, 73. 
proper age for, y2). 
and plasticity, 73-79. 
and cultural inequality, 
.85, 87, 89. 
Meekins, Lynn R., the pos- 
sibilities of woman, 
267. 
Merrick's Chameleon, 105. 
Mixed college faculties, 51. 
Miinster, University of, 

237. 
attendance of Sisters at, 

23,7- 
Miinsterberg, Hugo, 69, 
128. 
the American woman, 
69. 

N 
Natural law, inviolability 
of, 34, 47. 



Index 



297 



o 

Organization and social re- 
form, 181. 



Pace, Dr. E. A., ideal of 
the college woman, 
270-275. 

Patriotism, development of, 

153. 
Plato on coeducation, 115, 
121. 

R 

Religion and social service, 

161. 
Religious orders and pov- 
erty, 177, 178, 181, 
182. 
Religious garment, 161. 
Religious teacher, 9, 10. 
ideal instructors of 

girls, II. 
and social service, 152. 
equipment of, 195. 
sacrifices, 233. 
difficulties of, 234. 
professional training of, 

235-245. 
at non-Catholic univer- 
sities, 247. 
Rousseau on the education 
of women, 112. 



St. Catherine's College, 219. 

St. Clara College, 219, 256. 

St. Elizabeth's College, 
219. 

St. Mary's College, 219. 

St. Vincent de Paul So- 
cieties, 175. 



Savonarola, 164. 

School and the home, 50. 
country schools, 61-63. 
crowded curriculum of, 
214, 

School children, grading 
of, 52. 

Scudder, Miss, 178, 180. 

Secular schools, deteriorat- 
ing influence of, 144. 

Segregation, 18, 34, 40, 42, 

95- 
Sexes, symmetry in the 

cultural development 

of, 81. 
mutual attractiveness 

of, 27. 
separation of, 34. 
equality of, 18-30, 37, 

100, 170, 193, 264. 
differences between the, 

43-46, 49, 104, 265. 
inequality of, 85. 
companionship, 279-291. 
Sex characteristics, 25, 29, 

31, 33, 43. 
Shahan, Dr. T. J., 133, 

141-143, 168-170. 
and the American 

woman, 168-170, 192. 
Sisters of Good Shepherd, 

139- 
Holy Cross, 179. 
St. Francis, 139. 
Social claim, 125, 131. 
vs. family claim, 129, 

157. . . 
recognition by the 

Church, 133. 

Social intercourse between 
the sexes, 50. 

Social service and the re- 
ligious teacher, 160. 
and religion, 161, 



298 



Index 



Sisterhoods and the social 
claim, 168. 

the vows of, 176. 

and the formation of 
character, 261. 
Symmetry in development 
of individual, 90. 

in development of so- 
ciety, 91. 

in the cultural develop- 
ment of the sexes, 
91. 



Teachers, religious, 147, 
152. 
public school, 145, 152. 
training of, 146. 
burdens of, 148. 
vocation, 9. 
Jesus Christ the Model, 

48. 
and marriage, 159. 
Teaching communities, 139. 
devotion of, 10, 
and Catholic parents, 10. 
work of recognized at 
Catholic University, 
II. 
Teaching communities, ad- 
vantages of, 159. 
Training, objective, 225, 
256. 
motor, 256, 257. 
manual, 257. 
of future home-makers, 
. 258. 
Trinity College, 219. 
Trochilus and the croco- 
dile, III. 



U 

University, function of, 71. 



University, Catholic, 192, 
238, 249. 

Miinster, '2'^']. 

Chicago, 18. 
Ursuline rule, 255. 



V 
Vanity of man, 27. 

of woman, 2^]. 
Vocation of the teacher, 9. 
cultivation of, 11, 12, 

160. 
of woman, 186. 
loyalty to spirit of, 131. 
and Catholic parents, 

138. 
to social service, 140, 

153, 160. 
need of, 149. 
and divorce, 160. 
the cultivation of, test 

of school's efficiency, 

162. 
to religious life, 181. 
meaning of, 182. 
to priesthood, 182. 
and the social claim, 

183. 
and coeducation, 184. 
and home duty, 264. 
motive of, 208. 



W 

Wealth, obligations of, 150. 
debasing influence of, 

69, 77- 
Wife, the ideal, 107. 
Willard, Frances, 23. 
Woman in literature, 22, 71. 

in science, 22. 

•in medicine, 23. 

in the pulpit, 23. 



Index 



299 



Woman in social reform, 23. 
education, 23. 
in journalism, 22. 
the ideal, 259, 261. 
the new, 36. 
in the industries, 35, 

107, 127, 190, 199. 
in the Christian Church, 

92, 133. 

in Pagan antiquity, 115- 
126. 

higher education of, 8, 
22, 24, 28, 180, 193. 

and man allies, 102. 

three vocations of, 186, 
202, 203, 206. 

at the bar, 22. 

in college faculties, 23. 

in the universities, 25. 

and cheap labor, 39. 

in art, 71. 

in charity work, 71. 

in Church work, 71. 

and Christian marriage, 
92. 

and the penalty of lead- 
ership, lOI. 
Woman's independence 
through education, 
19, 28. 

capacity for higher edu- 
cation, 19, 21, 24, 33. 



Woman's lack of initiative 
due to heredity, 21, 

29, 30. 
new sphere, 35, 103, 108, 

196-200. 
intellect, 21, 28, 29. 
Woman's rights, 18. 
and pedagogy, 20. 
and sociology, 20, 
Woman's suffrage, 18, 23. 
Women the friends of 
Christ, 133, 134. 
in Apostolic times, 134- 

37- 

the percentage who 
marry, 253. 

progress of, 263. 

and human advance- 
ment, 268, 269. 
Women's college, 216. 

and the social claim, 
168. 

of the future, 171-173, 
198, 219, 252, 255,268. 

and social reform, 179. 

at Oxford, 237. 

imitating man's college, 
262. 

ideal of, 270. 

Y 
Young, Ella Flagg, 23. 



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Round the World. Vol. I. Travels. 
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Senior Lieutenant's Wager, The. 30 Short Stories. 
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Spalding, S.J. 

Cave by the Beech Fork. 

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The Race for Copper Island. 
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Trail of the Dragon, The, and Other Stories. By 

Writers. 
Transplanting of Tessie, The. Waggaman. 
Treasure of Nugget Mountain. Taggart. 
Two Little Girls, Mack. 



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